


The 21st

by oONightmareOo



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Abuse, Angst, Dimension Travel, M/M, OOC due to mental trauma, Rape, Soul abduction
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-21
Updated: 2016-12-26
Packaged: 2018-08-10 02:42:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 5
Words: 22,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7827217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oONightmareOo/pseuds/oONightmareOo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Typical HoneyMustard - but with a bit more detail.  Sans had always admired his younger brother for his strength, even after the human Reset again.  And again.  And again.  But the human was having issues with each Reset, their mentality was breaking down... and so was Papyrus'.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. How it began

                It was August 21st, yet again.  Was that the day the kid fell?  He didn’t know, he could only assume it was.  For some reason, the kid just kept Resetting.  It wasn’t entirely just because of their death, – though, judging from how Boss would go out then the world would Reset, it probably mostly was – but even when they had befriended every monster and they made it to the surface.  One day, Sans would be getting ready to head to his job as a bar bouncer, the next he’d be waking up on the floor of his room from the Underground.  Honestly, it was kind of messing with him.  It was always the same thought ‘when will the kid Reset again?  Will it be today?  Will it be after our happy ending again?’ and it was almost making him paranoid.  Once, they had even gone a full year on the surface world before a Reset happened, causing Sans to let his guard down since they were no longer in a literal dog eat dog world anymore.  Then one day, they were back in the Underground.  Sans had been in total disbelief, even going so far as to pretend that it was a dream, and some monster had taken that opportunity to dust him.  So far, he could remember being dusted about ten or so times, usually by another monster.

                Lately though, the kid had been gaining some EXP, and by extension, LV.  They still hadn’t managed to beat Boss in a battle and a lot of notable monsters were still alive.  In the last time, the kid had gotten to where they had very nearly 15 LV.  He almost couldn’t believe this was the kid who had been so enthusiastic with the MERCY button, to the point it took them a million and one Resets before they finally achieved their goal the first time.  The kid’s name?  Yeah, they were Frisk but for some reason, the damned flower continually called them different names.  A lot of the time, the flower called them Chara but sometimes it’d be something different – Steve, Ryno, Metta, Steph, even Mercy or Kill was in the list.  It was weird.  Well, speaking of the kid, there they were now.  But… where was the flower?

                Sans snuck up behind the kid, following them curiously.  The last couple of times, the kid would turn around and see him following them then greet him nonchalantly.  This time, the kid wobbled around like they were having issues walking.  That wasn’t the norm.  They paused at the bridge, looking around as if expecting something.  “hey kid, don’t you know how to greet a new pal?”  The next thing Sans knew, the kid turned around quickly with the intent to stab him with a bloody knife that had quite a bit of dust on it.  Blipping a safe distance away from the strange child, the kid seemingly glared straight through him.  “well now, i suppose that’s a greeting fit for this world kid.”  Though, if Sans had a choice, he kind of preferred his buzzer that he was tucking into a pocket.  Summoning a sharp bone, Sans ran it right through the kid’s back.  Or that was his intention, if the kid hadn’t moved out of the way before charging at him.  Dodging was a strength of his, but his attacks were honestly under developed.  Papyrus always beat it out of him if he practiced his magic.  So all he could really do was dodge and hope for an opening.

                “Haa… haaa… heh… ha… eheheh… AHAHAHAHAHA!!!”  The kid had been having a bit of an issue breathing before they had started their laughing, so it kind of surprised Sans when they started screaming their laughter with tears flowing down their cheeks.  It surprised him enough that the kid managed to hit him and he physically saw his one health point drop to zero before he felt himself start turning to dust.

                “well, kid… you aren’t the same person I remember…”  At his words, the kid’s red eyes stopped glowing as they seemed to realize what was going on, if he could go by how their eyes focused on Sans’ wound and dusting form.

                “Wha… Sans…?”  That was the last thing Sans heard before a Gaster Blaster showed up and blasted right through the kid’s soul.  It had Boss’ signature magic, so Sans knew who was crunching the snow behind him before Boss even spoke.

                “You really are weak.  Couldn’t even protect yourself from such a flimsy child.  C’mon, get up, time to go home.”  Boss didn’t seem to even notice that Sans was slowly deforming as the dust was gently blown away from his body.  Boss was always right though so maybe he really wasn’t dying, it just felt like he was.  No, Sans really couldn’t lie to himself, he was pretty bad at that.  Nonetheless, he followed Boss’ order to stand up, turning around to meet his eyes.

                He grinned, looking up at his little brother who seemed to be in a state of disbelief.  “s-sorry… pap…”  He stuffed his hands in his pockets as the rest of him flew away in a sudden gush of wind.  His eyes closed before they too disappeared without a trace.

                When he opened them again, he was staring at the ceiling of his room again, possibly about midnight on the 21st of August.  Maybe one o’clock.  His internal alarm clock was telling him he had a few more hours before Boss was going to barge into his room, cuss at him until he got out of the house, then possibly drag him to his sentry station.  That last one had been kind of iffy the last couple of times.  Sometimes he’d be drug all the way across Snowdin until they got to the sentry post, other times he’d be glared at from behind as he walked all the way there, and still other times they just parted at the door.  It wasn’t that everything was the same after the kid Reset, there was just certain things that stayed the same.  Meaning, if today was the 22nd then Boss would be scouting in the Hotlands but since today was the 21st, he was going to concentrate his efforts within Snowdin and Waterfall.  That’s really the only reason the kid and him always met, he was following his route all the way until Temmie Village then bring himself all the way back around to the house for lunch then would come to Sans’ sentry station to make sure the lazy skeleton was doing some work only to get into an argument about the lamp – or attempt to save Sans from the kid, as the last time made apparent.

                Which was actually fairly curious – why was the kid suddenly attacking the notable monsters?  He could already tell that the kid had killed the flower, maybe even the former queen if how the kid had walked effortlessly through the door explained anything.  Every other time, the kid ran through the door just to shut it behind them as they dodged fireballs while pained crying was coming from the other side.  The only reason he even knew the kid showed up last time was because he was bored and watching the cameras, while every other time he just had to wait for fireballs to light up the sky and screaming to scare the birds.  He would have to be extra alert this time.  He couldn’t let anything possibly happen to Boss.

                “SANS!”  Sans sat upright like lightning had hit his spine at the yell from the next room over.  Boss was angry and it wasn’t going to be very fun.  A split second later, Sans could hear stomping before one door was slammed open then his own was slammed open, Boss glowing in his anger and Sans could tell, he was in for a very bad time.

….

                About two hours later of continual abuse, Sans could honestly say this was only the second time it’s been this bad in his life.  The first had resulted in the cracks all along his skull and his now gold fake tooth – but that was a story for another time.  He almost felt like his spine had been snapped in half, as if his torso was no longer connected to his pelvis.  About half an hour in, Sans had bit his tongue in a choked cry, causing Boss to shove a folded pair of socks into his mouth so he wouldn’t make a magical mess.  Heh, Sans would have laughed if he weren’t in so much pain right at this moment.  And if Boss weren’t still in the room, looking at his huffing pained form from where he was crouched just out of reach.  “Pathetic.  I’m almost surprised you’re still alive.  You’ll probably even die by a weak human’s hands.  If it weren’t for me, you probably would have died a long time ago.  Where’s my thanks?  A lazy pathetic excuse for a relative that can’t even take a small amount of punishment.  Hmph.”  Boss rested his chin on his left hand, looking over the damage that had been taken during the ‘punishment’.  Ha… pun-ishment.  As if, Boss hates puns more than the next guy.  Sans’ eyesight started going fuzzy, signifying that the kid was going to Reset again.  Sans hated when the Reset happened while he was awake.

                This continued for the next twenty Resets, sometimes even going further and nearly killing him.  It really didn’t help that all damage that was put on him before each Reset stuck with him after each Reset happened.  Honestly, he felt like he hadn’t eaten anything in weeks but he knew for a fact he had dinner on the 20th.  To celebrate Boss’ accomplishment in battle against some Boss Monster in the North, it had been forever since he had heard the actual story since every time Boss would be distracted by human sightings.  On the happy endings where they were going to Frisk’s PTA meetings, Boss would never feel the need to mention any of his past conquests unless he felt the rare need to terrify some human, mostly the woman who butted heads with him during the meetings.  He thinks her name was Helen or something.

                There were some Resets where Boss would notice the new scars and dents and dings and punish Sans for having markings from someone other than himself – it was almost ironic that he was being punished for being punished by the same person.  Not that he could really make a comment, he was mostly occupied trying not to make his pain any worse.  From what he heard from Boss’ angry ramblings though, each Reset came closer and closer to Boss’ death.  Sans _really_ didn’t want to see that happening.  Every Reset, the kid became even more insane than the last, killing even more monsters and getting even further.  Sans didn’t have any proof but Papyrus seemed almost worried every time the kid almost got to him for their fight.

                Boss hadn’t come back yet.  Usually he would have been back by now.  Sans had been beaten within an inch of his life this morning so he knew it was the 26th today.  Oh yeah, five days since the last Reset.  Which meant that the kid _had_ to be somewhere nearby.  Maybe Boss was killing the kid right now.  But, wasn’t he a bit late in returning home?  Or maybe he was already home but had decided to go to bed.  No, that wasn’t like Boss.  He would have at least come into the room and thrown mean words at him.  Not that they weren’t true, but they still hurt more than the beatings did.  Sans’ eye-sockets slowly started to close before he snapped them back open.  Boss didn’t like it when he was sleeping.  If Boss was awake, then Sans had to be awake.  Sans didn’t know when that had started but he did remember that about fifty Resets ago, it wasn’t like that.  Now, if Boss saw him sleeping he would almost immediately be in pain.

                But… maybe Boss was asleep?  It was pretty late.  So then, did that mean that he could sleep?  He was pretty tired, the beating this morning took a lot out of him then attempting to heal himself until he could complete the tasks that were expected of him.  Mostly just doing sentry duty and making food.  Then Boss had told him that he’d be useless even as a sentry so he might as well just stay home and clean.  Sans couldn’t figure out what needed cleaning with his mind hazed with pain and exhaustion so he had been beaten again after lunch for just wandering uselessly.  It really didn’t help that Boss was an insane neat freak.  He was unable to heal himself from that one so he had dragged himself into a sitting position against the wall where he still sat now in his room.

                Could he really even call it _his_ room?  A room was a place where you could comfortably obtain privacy.  Well, the room was neither comfortable nor very private.  Oh well, it was still his room.  Mindlessly thinking random thoughts finally pulled him into the deep recesses of sleep, allowing him a short amount of relief from the pain he was in.  He supposed breaking about five ribs when Boss was aiming to stomp on his spine was the main reason he had so much pain.

                When he woke up again, he almost couldn’t believe it was still silent.  Boss hadn’t woke him up?  He wasn’t home and screaming his name?  What was with that?  It was the 27th, but where was Boss?  “b-boss?”  A weak whisper escaped his teeth, as he looked about the lightening room.  Sans gathered his strength to heal his main injuries, standing shakily afterwards so he could walk down the stairs and check the house out.  Boss didn’t stay in his room past sunrise if he could help it, he thinks that it promotes laziness and that was the road to becoming trash like Sans.  Sans really couldn’t deny that.  Or anything that Boss says.  If Boss said the sky was green and the snow was purple, then Sans would have to remember that it was a fact of the world.

                The house looked exactly how it had been left after lunch the day before, even the dishes were in the exact same place.  That was strange.  If Sans couldn’t do the dishes or Boss felt that Sans was particularly useless, Boss would do the dishes for the day then punish Sans for making Boss do his chores.  Boss couldn’t stand anything messy within his sight – more often than not, he demanded that Sans stay out of it.  “boss?”  A stronger call than before and still even more silence than before.  He felt himself go numb in disbelief, there was no way that _that_ human had killed Boss.  Boss was the strongest in the Underground.  It wasn’t possible that _anyone_ could kill Boss, especially not one that had claimed before that kindness was the only thing that should ever be given to anyone.  “kindness is enough, huh?”  He had never felt such an intense amount of turmoil within his soul.  Was he glad that the abuse would probably stop?  Was he upset that his brother was possible dead?  Was he angry that someone may have killed his precious person?  Yeah, he was all three of these things.  But he couldn’t necessarily do anything about it.  He was a weak piece of shit, trash that should never have been looked at, what could he possibly do to fix any of it?  He couldn’t even save his brother from the first time he was mentally scarred, what could he possibly do now?

                The familiar feeling of a Reset took over him, changing the scenery from the kitchen to his ceiling on the morning of the 21st.  If the kid had really killed Boss – though that was highly unlikely and fairly impossible – maybe they were killed by Shyren or Undyne.  He had heard Shyren was brutal to anyone who trespassed in her territory but monsters were naturally drawn to her beautiful humming.  Undyne he knew the brutality of first-hand.  If she wanted to keep you alive, you’d wish within the first ten minutes for death.  He was just happy that Boss never stuck around whenever Undyne paid to release her frustrations on Sans, he didn’t think he could take all that pain on a daily basis.

                His thoughts were cut short and he was almost thankful if it weren’t for the reason that his thoughts had gone out.  Right on top of him was a _very_ pissed Papayrus glaring straight into his eye-sockets with a fire of a million hells burning within his own.  Boss’ right hand was grasping very tightly around the part of his spine that made up his throat, right above his collar.  “Y’know what, trash?  I found another use for you.  Strip.”

                Well, this was certainly new.  Maybe something different happened before the Reset?  Apparently Sans was not fast enough for Boss as Boss angrily chucked him across the room by his collar, the impact with the wall knocking what little breath he had out of him.  “So slow, pathetic.”

                What happened next was something that Sans could barely believe was even happening.  It barely even processed in the back of his mind why this would ever happen.  When Boss was finished throwing angry words, breaking bones, and satisfying himself, he left – stating he was still expecting lunch to be made.  Boss had never done this before.  Boss had many Resets ago confessed to having more than brotherly feelings for Sans (stating that was why he was so mean to Sans and trying to toughen him up), after they had been on the Surface for a few months.  They had never gotten further than setting up a date, since Boss had read in a dating manual that it was mandatory to ask the person out to a romantic setting, before the Reset happened.  Sans was almost disappointed they had not been able to watch the Star Wars marathon that Frisk had recommended to them.  Even more so disappointed that his brother had not been able to explore his feelings before being dragged back to this shithole.

                Was Sans even allowed to be surprised by what his brother did anymore?  Oh man, how long has it been since he referred to Boss as ‘his brother’?  Way too many Resets ago.  Even longer since he had called Boss Papyrus.  Taking a quick look at the time says that he’s been laying down in disbelief for near an hour.  Slowly taking the time to use the energy given to him by his brother’s magic remnants – of which he was ignoring where it came from – to heal any and everything he could feel would give him any issue in walking.  Taking about thirty minutes to do that.

                He took a moment to wipe the magic that had fallen from his eyes, even if they were only tracks now.  Well, if Boss saw any use in him, then he should be grateful.  After all, he was a useless pile of shit that barely deserved to walk this earth, much less be anywhere near Boss.  He couldn’t even protect himself, much less Boss.  Boss was the one who had to do all the protecting, to the point that it was a miracle that he kept Sans around to begin with.  There was literally no reason for Sans to be around.  He could beat up any random monster, he earned plenty of money by being the Captain of the Royal Guard, and he was a great chef.  Sans couldn’t do anything but break and mess things up or get in the way.  He was unnecessary to the point that he wondered how he was even still alive at points of time.

                Taking inventory of what was missing and needed reattached was really the majority of his healing time.  Boss had never broken off so many of his bones at once before.  Maybe this would be the last time.

                Of course, Sans was stupid to think that his newfound singular use would be forgotten.  After creating a simple meal of spaghetti and garlic bread, Boss decided to explore the use even more by beating him for messing up the spaghetti (he didn’t know how he had messed it up but obviously he had messed it up – maybe it was the sauce?) then satisfying himself again in whatever hole he found in Sans.  “If you bite me, your punishment will be a hundred times worse.  Also, get me to come in ten minutes then I will spare you from too much pain.”  So the choice was A) bite him and wish for death, B) don’t do anything and get punished even more, or C) suck him off quickly and have a minimum punishment.  Regardless of what most people thought, Sans was no masochist.  He hated any physical, emotional, and mental pain that could possibly be placed upon him.  Giving Boss a blowjob wasn’t really _that_ bad, surely.  He’s done it before, giving random monsters blowjobs and handjobs to be able to survive and earn a pretty decent amount of money.  Going onto autopilot, so he could ignore that this was indeed his brother, he decided to just get it over with.  Even if he had managed to get Boss to finish within the ten minutes he had been allotted, at the very last second he felt a flash of fear when his fake gold tooth nicked Boss’ magic as he let it fall out of his mouth.  He had been so careful-!

                Boss’ low laughter echoed in Sans’ mind as he left Sans’ room after beating Sans until his body was numb.  Was this what death felt like?  No, he already knew what death felt like.  It felt like you were wandering aimlessly through a crowd, not this mind-numbing nothingness.  He was fairly hesitant to move in any way to do anything since the simple act of shallow breathing caused an ache to appear within his ribcage.  He had to do better, he couldn’t continue being a useless piece of trash in front of Boss.  Boss had found a use for him, there was a reason that he was still alive now!  He had to fulfil these expectations that Boss now had for him!

                After he had healed himself that day, he had promised himself he wouldn’t fuck up anymore.  Surely, if he didn’t fuck up, Boss would be happy with him?  His singular aim had always been to make Boss happy.  If he couldn’t do that, then what was the point of him existing?

               The activities became harder for Sans to participate in, until he had finally gotten over to fact that Boss wanted to do these activities with him.  That week was spent in near constant new pains that he hadn’t felt since Boss was still ‘Pap’.  But he figured that this would be the new norm.  Boss wanted him to be a certain way, he would try his best to fit into that mold that Boss had set.  Surely, he’ll be happy then?

               The next couple Resets were set up the same way.  Finally, Sans had seen Boss smile.  Sure it was a smile at his pain but if Sans being in pain made Boss happy then he would do his best to please Boss.  He had done it once, maybe he could do it again?  But Sans didn’t see another smile until during one Reset, three days after that Reset had started, as he was broken and bleeding bright red magic on his floor, Boss had grinned while attaching a new collar to Sans’ neck.  It was tighter than the previous one that had simply stated that he was ‘under the protection of the Captain of the Royal Guard, Papyrus’ and it had blunt metal spikes on the inside and outside.  “There we are, a toy like yourself needs a proper tag.  ‘Pet and Property of Papyrus, Captain of the Royal Guard.’”  Boss snickered a bit before leaving.  Pausing in the doorway, Boss glanced back at the broken body that he had caused once again.  “Oh, we’re going to have company tonight so do make yourself presentable.”  Loud laughter echoed through the otherwise silent house before the front door slammed close.

               Slowly reaching his shaking hand to just manage to grab his collar.  Pulling on it a bit allowed him to see the tag that seemed to be shaped like a dog bone.  It read exactly as Boss had said it did, besides the fact that his name was right above the line that said ‘Pet and Property of’ in all caps.  It seemed fairly accurate in his opinion.  His bedroom had changed.  Every Reset start, Boss would always come in and throw the small bed he had once been allowed out the window, hammer in a metal post to the ground then attach a leash which would be immediately attached to his collar.  His coat that he had once always worn always stayed in the corner now and he never expected his clothes to last very long after the start of the Reset.  Could he even say that the jacket always stayed in the corner?  After Boss had deemed him too useless to even make lunch or dinner, he always stayed in his room.  When Boss was gone and he had managed to heal himself of any major injury, he’d wear the jacket if only for some form of comfort.

               Asgore, he needed a bottle of mustard when the kid managed to kill Boss again.  There was no doubt in his mind that the kid had killed Boss several times but he doubted they had gotten past Undyne yet, not even once.  He was never in the right state of mind to take advantage of Boss’ short term absence though.  He had thought of getting a bottle of mustard multiple times before but hadn’t had one since the kid had last gotten them to the Surface.  How many Resets ago was that?  He had lost count so long ago; he couldn’t even tell you how many Resets ago the kid had dusted him the first time.

               When Boss came back that night, Sans had dressed himself in his usual black pants and red turtle neck sweater.  Sans tried to not show his confusion when Chillby showed up – as far as he knew, Chillby had no malicious intent towards Sans.  Sans was a valued customer at Chillby’s, he always enjoyed having Sans there when he once upon a time went there to get drunk on mustard.  He had never paid to beat Sans up before?

               Soon enough, Sans got his answer.  He never knew that Chillby had such desires that he would pay the no doubt large amount of money for two hours with Sans.  He almost wished it was Boss again, the fire hurt more than breaking bones.  Boss had stopped checking after about ten minutes of Sans screaming in pain due to the burning _burning scorching blazing flaming smolderinghothothot_ feeling of the fire elemental’s magic within him and on him and _all around it hurts it hurts it hurts Boss please stop this it hurts!_

               It repeated over and over _and over_ and the clients changed every Reset _Undyne, Alphys, Chillby, Asgore, even MK_ and he had honestly given up.  No more fighting, no more speaking, not even eating.  He spoke when it was demanded of him, mostly by Undyne and Boss.  They liked hearing screams of pain, they liked when he begged them to stop, they preferred to hear his voice.  Chillby liked it when he fought back and begged for him to stop.  Asgore preferred silence but every once in a while, he wanted screams of both pain and pleasure.  Alphys always preferred that he was locked up and she liked watching him struggle out of his bonds as she used torture methods that she had read in her Surface manga.  At the end, when he could no longer pretend to struggle, she would have him lick her.  MK would always change what he preferred but he seemed to mostly like rough blowjobs, nips and scrapes with his teeth at intervals.

               Still, Boss wasn’t happy.  The clients increased even more, Sans couldn’t ever feel his body anymore.  He didn’t know whether he was supposed to feel pain or nothingness.  When he could see through blurry eyes, he wasn’t sure if he actually felt the pain that went up and down his bones or if it was his imagination.  His imagination wasn’t really working in his favor anymore.  It used to bring him away from the pain and despair he felt, now it showed him things he knew he couldn’t – didn’t even deserve to – have.  It showed him Boss’ smile, when he had bought him some ice cream on the Surface.  The curious expression that Boss had when Frisk had mentioned Star Wars and Pokémon.  The laughter when the human’s classmates had all put together effort to make a fun school festival only for it all to fall apart and they fixed it by putting together a ridiculous play.  The sad expression when Boss saw him turn to dust the very first time.  They were all gone and would never be shown to him.

               Still another Reset, Undyne probably caught the human by surprise as she was on her way out of Boss’ house.  He thinks that the human had gotten so far as Alphys lately, Alphys had been pretty upset a couple Resets ago that the human had killed Undyne.  She took that anger and sadness out on him.

               This Reset was different from usual.  Boss had taken him outside for once in forever.  The snow burnt his eye-sockets with how bright it was, causing him to flinch back.  This angered Boss.  Boss seemed to be in a rush, he wasn’t willing for any delay to occur.  The blunt spikes dug into the back of his spine as the leash attached dragged him away from the safety of the house.  He was drug all the way to the other side of town this way, never going fast enough for Boss.  It probably didn’t help that many monsters were trying to delay him by saying things like they would pay more than the monster who had paid today, they would do _anything just so they can have him, **just for a little bit, c’mon, don’t be stingy, let us play with him**_.  Boss said that someone else had already promised a large payment.  Sans didn’t understand how every Reset everyone seemed to remember the last one as a dream but still thought it was reality.  Maybe it was because of Boss speaking about it and taking payment for requests.

               Getting into Snowdin Forest didn’t stop the requests but it did lessen them by a large margin due to the amount of monsters that preferred staying in the village.  Sans made a valiant effort to stop his bones from shaking and his teeth from clacking.  He was still in the clothing that he wore to bed the night of the 20th, a thin and tattered tank top that often didn’t last past the first morning of each Reset.  They passed by the sentry stand that he could remember claiming as his own once upon a time.  Now it was just left alone.  He couldn’t remember when he had last seen it.  He thought maybe Boss was going to have him return to his job.  He watched as Boss tied the leash to the side of the sentry station then pointed at the ground, indicating that he needed to sit down where he pointed.  Quickly following the silent instruction, he couldn’t help the shiver that ran across his bones at the touch of the ice and snow through his thin shorts.  Had someone made some sort of special request for him?  Maybe it was Chillby, wanting to have the contrast between burning heat and freezing cold?

               Why was Boss leaving him there?  No words spoken, just walking away?  What was Sans supposed to do?  Just wait for him to come back?  Or is he supposed to go back to his sentry duties?  What was it?  Looking the opposite direction of Boss, showed a white monster walking towards him.  He couldn’t make out who it was though he felt like he should know who it was.  “I honestly didn’t think he would follow my instructions.  Thought for sure he would insist upon making sure that you were passed on to me.  Oh well, at least now I’ve got a dog.”  Kneeling in front of him, she reached out and grabbed his chin and moved his face from side to side, inspecting him through gold eyes tinged in red.  He honestly couldn’t think of her name.  He knew that she had the title of former queen, but he also knew he was supposed to know her name.  “Well?  Where’s my thanks for buying you for the day?”

               “Th-than- “he didn’t get very far before he was slapped across the cheekbone.  Had he already messed up?

               “Now, now, that’s not the sound that dogs make.”  There was a dark shadow across her kind smile, making it almost the scariest expression he had ever seen.

               “R-ruff…”  That earned him a pat on the head, that was the first time he’s been praised in so long.

               “Good boy, now come along.”  Untying his leash from the sentry post, he thought on how he was supposed to ‘come along’.  She wanted a dog, right?  So on all fours?  But wouldn’t that cause delay?  He didn’t have long to think before he was yanked forward onto his hands and knees.  He had to say though, Toriel – he had finally remembered her name after they had entered ‘Home’ – was one of his nicer clients.  As long as he remembered he was supposed to be a dog, he wasn’t in much pain.  It wasn’t until about halfway through the day that he realized that she had more plans than just ‘puppy for the day’.

               “Oh dear, I just realized!  You must be such a lonely puppy without your ears and tail!”  Thus she produced three objects, two separate ears that looked exactly identical to even the wires and what looked like a Doggo tail on the end of a black orbed chew toy.  He wasn’t quite sure how to react so he just stayed still while she attached all three pieces to him.  Making sure the dog ears were exact in distance from each other and placement, pushing him onto his chest so that she could pull his shorts down.  Suddenly, it made sense how the tail worked.  Sans just let it happen, knowing it would hurt more if he fought it, when he felt something liquid like drip into his magic.  At first it didn’t bother him, figuring that Toriel was one of his rare customers that use lube.  She pulled his shorts back up after tearing a hole through them for the tail to go through, and as she was pulling it through, it tugged on the part that was inside of his magic.  A spurt of liquid went through his magic, causing him to shiver.

               “Wha-“a shock of electricity flew down his spine from the ears, causing him to whine and another spurt of liquid to run into his magic.

               “Oh dear, it seems the mutt forgot his place again.  Does this mean I have to punish you?  Ha!  Pun-ish, that’s a good one.”  She chortled to herself for a moment, before remembering that she had some punishing to do and pulled his leash towards herself roughly.  He had already become used to rough treatment with his collar so he was honestly entirely used to people pulling on it and the sudden spikes of pain it caused.  What he hadn’t yet experienced was the sudden spikes of electricity rushing through his bones at seemingly random intervals, so he wasn’t able to catch himself when yanked towards Toriel so his face hit the ground next to her feet.  She started giggling as she dragged him towards the last room in the hallway with him struggling to keep up if only to lessen any punishment he may receive.  “Oh, this is going to be absolutely purr-fect.”  She laughed some more as she unlocked the door then threw him in.  “Oh come, make some noise.  I rather liked that whine from earlier.”  He spasmed at the next round of electricity, letting out a rather animalistic whine.  Her smile widened from where she sat above him, looking down at his shaking body in dark amusement.  He felt even more liquid running through his magic stream and it was honestly starting to make him feel hot.  The sparks of electricity running from the ears were starting to ache in a pleasant way.

               “Ah!”  A rush of liquid was released from the toy at a particularly shocking volt of electricity, causing him to curl in on himself.  The smile on her face disappeared at the very human like noise he let out.

               “It seems that the mutt still hasn’t learnt it’s lesson.”  Sans couldn’t understand what was going on, it felt like liquid fire was running through his magic, as if he had Chillby’s magic inside his own at a lesser degree… and for a longer period of time.  It felt almost… nice in a strange way that he almost felt disgusted at – if he hadn’t already been forced into several disgusting acts.  “Time for a little discipline.”

               There was something new added to his schedule.  Every time a Reset happened, the first day was bought entirely by Toriel.  Because the next day, the kid would have killed her.  He was even there once when the kid came to Toriel’s house.  He didn’t remember much from that day, mostly just the kid looking at him strangely before laughing at him.  Toriel had sent them outside to play fetch while she finished making butterscotch-cinnamon pie, but the kid never threw the ball so Sans lay down as he had been conditioned to by Toriel.  As long as he had his ears and tail on, his mind went numb and he truly felt like a dog.  The moment they were taken off, he was left confused and disoriented until Boss came to pick him up at the sentry station.

               This continued for a long time.  He couldn’t even keep track of it anymore, he couldn’t tell when a Reset started and when it ended any longer.

               Then, one day, he woke up leashed to the sentry station.  Boss wasn’t in sight, neither was Toriel.  Not a single monster in sight, and something told him that time was recently Reset.  He was in his old normal clothing of a red turtle neck and black pants with his black sneakers and fur lined jacket.  He supposed that was the only reason he wasn’t shivering at this moment.  It was actually surprisingly warm, as if he had just put it on when Chillby had worn it for a while.  The snow felt softer than it usually did and didn’t have the gray undertone it generally had due to all the dust within it.  He took a small glance around to see that none of the trees had claw marks on them.  He felt a shiver of fear go down his spine as he realized he had no clue where he even was.  This obviously wasn’t the sentry station that Boss always took him to.  Had someone kidnapped him?  Boss was going to be so pissed.

               Sans took a deep breath in, calming his nerves.  Surely no one would have been able to kidnap him from Boss’ house without either Boss or himself waking up.  Maybe this was one of Boss’ strange punishments?  Boss was fairly unpredictable, he probably got tired of Sans sleeping all the time and put him outside.  It would be bad for him if Sans died this time around since he always got so much money from Toriel so he had dressed Sans in his old clothing so that he could survive until Toriel came to get him and dressed him as a dog as always.  It was going to be okay, he could survive this if it made Boss happy.

               The hours passed until, eventually, he could see the Surface’s sun through the crater at the top of Mt. Ebott.  That was what let him know that Toriel still wasn’t coming and neither was Boss.  The cold in the air had started seeping through his clothes and he was truly chilled to the bones by then, making his limbs stiff as he attempted to stand up.  He had to go find Boss, see what had happened to make Boss leave him there without any explanation.  Hesitating over the latch-hook that connected his collar to his leash, he instead untied the leash from the sentry post.  Boss liked this leash, Sans thinks.  Every Reset brought this same leash to him so he could only assume that Boss liked this one.

               Stumbling to his feet, he managed to take one step before pain erupted suddenly all across his body causing him to fall into the sentry stand _it hurts it hurts Boss it hurts why does **it hurt so much Boss!**_   He felt like he was back in Undyne’s basement where she had stripped him down and whipped him all over until his magic was dripping all over his body.  Blurry eyes looked down at shaking hands only to see bright red magic dripping off the bony structure of scars and scrapes.

**_………………_ **

               It was just another day in Snowdin.  Chara hadn’t yet Reset but they weren’t making any progress to get past Alphys.  They had already befriended Sans so Papyrus didn’t think they were going to do that murdering thing they sometimes did.  They always killed him before they went on that taco date of theirs.

               So it was a peaceful day, in Papyrus’ eyes.  He felt like something would change but he ignored that gut feeling – mostly because he doesn’t even have guts to begin with.  He chuckled a bit as he walked along the snow covered path over to the forest sentry station he frequented.  No, it wasn’t really _his_ station as everyone apparently thought it was.  It was actually Sans’ but he had way too much energy to actually sit in one place and wait for someone to walk past, so it turned into Pap’s since Sans always asked him to watch there while he made sure all the fun puzzles were in working order.

               Something caught his eye-socket as he turned towards the small shack, tilting his head to the right to maybe see better.  It looked like a tattered black cloth had gotten caught on the shack, possibly in someone’s unconcerned walk through here.  Or a frenzied run to get away from something.  It wasn’t because of Chara, Sans had taken the human to his one-on-one training with Alphys for the day.  Since it couldn’t have been Chara, he didn’t see any reason to be worried (there was even a third option of someone getting lost then freaking out – that one kid without arms did that often, he had some sort of black and gray sweater that his parents made him wear when outside for long periods of time) until he saw something red and liquid like dripping from the cloth as he got closer.

               Not many monsters bled, there were very few to this exception that he knew of.  Namely, Sans, himself, the former king, and the queen.  They were the only ones who didn’t start turning to dust immediately when fatally injured, but losing enough magic would cause that fatal injury to actually affect them.  When not fatal, an injury didn’t really show up necessarily.  Just scrapes and flesh-wounds – or in Sans and his cases, bone-wounds.  Maybe a bit of feather loss.  That was it.  So this red liquid was concerning.

               He knew it wasn’t his own, his magic was orange.  It wasn’t Sans either, since it was the same color as his.  Then was it one of those royals?  He didn’t know what color their magic took.  Thinking wasn’t going to help whoever was bleeding this bright red magic though so he needed to lock on this magic so he could take a shortcut.

               Picking the damp cloth off of the loose nail it was hooked onto, he let his senses reach out in an attempt to locate this possibly injured person.  _There_ , they felt unstable and as if they were stumbling about.  Every once in a while they’d jump from where they were to a place about twenty or thirty feet ahead.  Short-cutting his way Northeast, he intercepted what looked like an unsteady edgy Sans.  Papyrus knew better than to think of this one as Sans, simply because of the large amount of differences versus the small amount of similarities.

               Stepping forward and standing in the shorter skeleton’s way, he slowly reached out for the mysterious shorty’s forehead.  A short tap later allowed him to notice both the skeleton’s fever and his fear.  “wha-?!  gh-!”  Stumbling away and summoning the smallest Gaster Blaster that Papyrus had ever seen, he aimed the still dangerous weapon at Papyrus.  “get back, i’m warning ya, boss won-keh-!”  Before Papyrus could do anything, the Blaster flickered out of existence as the skeleton fell to one knee.  Papyrus approached slowly as the skeleton swayed.  “gh-get away!  b-boss won’t-geh-!”  Papyrus could pinpoint the exact moment the new skeleton passed out.  He sighed.

               Well, he couldn’t very well leave the mystery monster out here to die – Sans would throw a bitch fit if he found out.  Which he always did.  For such an innocent little guy, he has eyes and ears everywhere.  As he picked the skeleton up, he noticed a long strip of leather hanging from his front.  Freeing one of his arms by putting the light weight on the other, he picked the piece of leather up curiously.  It had a loop around the side that was dangling, looking a little worn out, possibly from bony fingers pulling at certain spots in intervals.  Tugging at the leather strip, he heard a slight jingle.  Looking where the leather strip connected nearly made him sick.  A _dog collar_ and _leash?!_   What the hell was going on with this kid?

               A glint of silver caught his attention as he tucked the leash into the boy’s jacket.  Lifting his eye-lights to look at what it was, it looked a lot like a dog tag.  Ignoring the queasy feeling he felt from seeing that, he tilted the small piece of metal.

                    ‘SANS

                    Pet and Property of

                    Papyrus,

                    Captain of the Royal Guard’

               Suddenly things made sense.  Not really, Papyrus was still entirely confused and a little – ok, a _lot_ – disgusted, but the mysterious skeleton’s identity and where he came from certainly cleared up.  Flipping the tag over so he could check if there was anything on there, it simply held a phone number.  It grossed Papyrus out that it was his own phone number.  He was apparently not very nice to Sans in a different universe.  Deciding to leave everything he was curious about until he got back home, he gathered his magic so he would be able to teleport the distance to home.  Usually he did what this other skeleton was doing earlier rather than teleporting straight there – blipping from one spot to another that was close by.  It saved a _lot_ of energy so hey, it was nice.  But it also took time he probably couldn’t waste anymore of.  Teleporting straight to his bedroom, he set the small skeleton on his own bed and got the first-aid supplies.  Opening it, he couldn’t help the burst of laughter that escaped him when he saw a note that had instructions on how to make ‘The Magnificent SANSational Sans’ Glorious Tacos!’  Setting that note aside, he pulled out the large number of bandages that had been stocked into the case.

               Steeling himself to whatever he was more than likely going to see when he undressed the shorter skeleton, he carefully removed the now soaking clothing from the limp skeleton.  Whatever he braced himself for, it certainly wasn’t enough.  It was bad enough when he unlatched the collar and saw the scars building on top of each other from the blunt spikes on the inside of the collar (who the _hell_ put spikes on the inside of a collar?!  Where in the world would you even _buy_ something like that?!  What _even?!_ ), he wasn’t expecting to see what looked like more than ten years of continual abuse after abuse on the skeleton’s torso.  He couldn’t even think of this skeleton as Sans – it would destroy him if he found out that Sans had been hiding scars like this from him.  So Red here would be thought of and probably called Red.

               It looked just like the scars under the collar – scar building upon scar building upon scar.  Scars caused by breaks, scars caused by some broken sharp edge, scars that looked like whip marks, scars that looked too clean of a cut to be any of the one already mentioned (possibly by a scalpel or a perfectly cared for knife), even scars caused by burns.  There was even a scar that looked like the spine had been collapsed multiple times.  The arms looked worse than the ribcage and spine, believe it or not.  Scars caused by struggling against some restraint or another, chipped places where the bone would never regrow, burn scars in the shape of hands.  He took a moment to adjust himself to the sight of Red’s upper body, before taking a deep breath and starting to methodically go through the process of patching up all of the deep cuts that had already naturally started stemming the flow of Red’s magic.  He supposed it worked like Chara’s scrapes and cuts, in a way.  Except it uses the magic that was flowing through the cuts.

               Once done on Red’s upper body, he thought for certain that the lower body wouldn’t be as bad so he had unthinkingly uncovered the skeleton’s pelvis and legs without preparing himself.  He had to look away as soon as he had seen it; Red’s upper body was a playground scrape compared to his lower body.  The majority of the scars focused on the pelvis and upper leg bones, so it wasn’t as spread out as it was above, but it sickened Papyrus even more than the kid’s ribs did.  Forcing himself to ignore it, he focused on cleaning and wrapping and healing to just be able to _make it go away_.  Once done fixing the physical wounds all over the skeleton’s body, he dressed the kid (because surely Red was just a child, if not physically then most definitely mentally or emotionally – he looked like he had been beat every day of his life and never allowed to live out any sort of childhood) in one of his older hoodies.  It was at least the same color red as the turtle neck he had been wearing earlier.

                Getting the fever to lower would take more effort than mummifying the kid, but he had no way of knowing the kid wouldn’t attack him again as he had tried to before.  He groaned as he realized the best way would probably be something that was more than likely familiar to the kid.  He hesitated then forced his hand to grab the spike red leather from before, wrapping it around the kid’s throat as loosely as was possible then tying the leash to the post of his bed tightly.  During one of Sans’ safety sessions, the mini tornado had run through his room to bolt in his bed in case of an earthquake or something – figuring that Papyrus spent most of his time asleep so the safest place for Papyrus was under the bed if debris started falling on him.  So now his bed was stuck to the ground, no chance of it _ever_ moving again.

                Checking the leash – and feeling absolutely despicable for doing so – he left to go to the restroom down the hall.  Grabbing the same bowl and washcloth he used whenever Sans had a fever himself, he filled the bowl with cold water and soaked the cloth.  Carrying both lazily back to his room, he was kind of surprised when he went into his room to see Red sitting up and staring blankly at Papyrus’ bed – from the floor next to it.  He looked totally out of it, like he wouldn’t even understand if someone said a simple ‘hi’, and his magic was causing a fever flush to show itself as sweat ran down his skull.  He looked up at Papyrus hazily.  “b-boss?”  The weak whisper nearly broke Papyrus’ heart, if it weren’t already shattering from everything else Red had going on without speaking.  “i s-swear; i d-didn’t me-mean to get on th-the bed…”  This was a stronger whisper, one that lacked any emotion.  The expression Red wore lacked any expression as well, one that more or less looked like he was expecting the wrath of seven hells to be brought upon him for something as simple as laying down in a bed that he didn’t know how he got on… but he couldn’t do anything to stop that wrath from unleashing.

                _Shit._ The kid had barely spoken to Papyrus without any hostility and Papyrus could already feel himself being wrapped around Red’s little broken and cracked finger.  “You’re good, I want you to sleep.”  The kid became even more confused as Papyrus picked Red back up and laid him in the bed again.  “Promise I won’t punish you.”  That seemed to be the only thing Papyrus had to say for Red to pass out comfortably, causing Papyrus to flinch.  The words had only been a guess, they really had.  Was the kid really punished for _sleeping_?!  But you needed to sleep to live?  How did ‘Boss’ expect anything to happen when the kid was terrified to rest and regain energy?!

                Pushing those thoughts aside, he placed the cold rag on Red’s fore-skull with practiced ease before setting back and waiting.  Simply, waiting.


	2. September 21st

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's so short, I couldn't think of ways to lengthen it any more.

_“Snas!  Dun weave me!”  Papyrus had red tears streaming down his face, but Sans really couldn’t figure out where they came from, why they were even there.  Sans was already becoming late for his shift at the Hot stand (where all he did was sell a bunch of hot dogs and call them weird things while drenching them in tabasco and wasabi sauce) but Papyrus was a hundred times more important than a silly job._

_“hey papy, what’s up?”  Sans spoke gently to the babybones, kneeling from where he was about to open the door.  “why would you think i’m gonna leave you?”_

_“Cuz a scary bastard sed so!  He was stendin’ righ’ there!”  Papyrus turned to point into the corner across from the staircase.  Sans felt himself freeze on the inside.  No one should be able to break through his barrier – well, except_ him _.  But_ he _didn’t exist anymore._

_“now now, there’s absolutely no way i could leave my… a-door-able little bro.”  Sans grinned, patting the door next to him.  Papyrus lost all expression then, giving Sans an ‘are-you-fucking-kidding-me-you-son-of-a-mustard-holic-idiot’ look before Sans continued.  “besides, you’re the great papyrus!  i can always count on my hero!”  Sans grinned even larger as Papyrus’ ribcage puffed out, proud and grand._

_“I’ll pwotet Snas from big bad idits!” Papyrus proclaimed loudly.  The next day, Sans had bought a coffee table to set in that corner, hoping that Papyrus wouldn’t see that ‘scary bastard’ again if he did that._

**_…………………._ **

                The moment Sans awoke, he could already tell he was where he wasn’t supposed to be.  He had been in the forest, trying his best to find Boss’ signature magic, when he had been intercepted by someone… orange?  He didn’t remember there being any orange in Snowdin forest or in Snowdin itself and there was no frosty chance in hell that one of the Core monsters would come out to chilly Snowdin during the summer – or any time really.  They preferred the heat produced by the Core to the freezing cold of Snowdin.  Now he was in a dark room, it felt like there’s something soft and squishy below him – scratch that, it _was_ beneath him.  Boss would destroy him – again – if he found Sans on any sort of furniture unless a paying customer demanded it of him, especially if it were a bed.  Standing next to the _comfo –_ ahem, bed, he noticed a few more details.  His leash was attached to the bedpost (which was actually more normal than it probably should be), as he realized when he stepped back away from the bed.  His clothes had been changed into a _way_ too big red hoodie, like he didn’t even have pants – wait, nope, that was fairly normal too, just, y’know, without the hoodie.  The last thing he noticed was that he didn’t particularly feel like he was where he was.  It almost felt like someone was holding him in a gentle embrace, and it scared the crap out of him.  Inspecting himself once more, he shivered when he realized the most important thing.

                His soul was missing.

                Searching the room frantically, he finally found where his soul was sitting.  He couldn’t tell through the darkness of the room who it was that was holding his scarred soul, but he could almost _sense_ that monster inspecting it.  It almost looked like… Boss?  “h-hey…”  Sans hesitantly reached out towards the mystery monster, watching helplessly as they carelessly twirled his soul around their hand.  “who are…?”  Clenching their hand suddenly near his soul (for it would have gotten awkward, not uncomfortable, if the mysterious monster were actually holding his soul – instead, they appeared to be using magic of some kind that Sans was unfamiliar with… unsurprisingly), Sans squirmed uncomfortably at the feeling.  He had been bound in body but he had never been bound in soul.

                “So, what’s your name?”  The distinctly male voice asked as a sigh of smoke escaped their mouth(?) and almost touched his soul before floating up.

                “you-you’re not one of boss’ clients?”  The monster’s hand twitched before squeezing tighter.

                “I didn’t ask who I was, I asked who you were.”

                “um…  sans, that’s my name.”  Sans had to question for a moment if that truly was his name.  It had been so long since he heard it last.  It was always ‘good boy’, ‘mutt’, ‘piece of shit’, ‘trash’, or even ‘it’.  Never ‘Sans’.  Boss was never happy enough with him to call him as such.  It was all his fault though, it always was.

                “Alright, how did you get in the forest?”  The grip loosened around his soul and Sans was relieved.  The fact that his soul was in someone else’s hands made him scared to begin with and the monster’s tight grip on it wasn’t making him feel any more comfortable.

                “i… i don’t know.”  The grip returned, causing Sans to let out a short quiet whine.  Clients weren’t allowed to touch Sans’ soul, magically or otherwise, Boss made that extremely clear.  This was the first time his soul had been touched by anyone, period (besides that one time that Boss had mistakenly stomped on his ribcage a little too high – but that caused him to dust immediately because the damage was too great).  He had to say, this would most definitely keep him concentrated on the here and now, rather than spacing out as he did.  “i-i’m serious!  there was a reset and then i was in the forest tied to the sentry post an-and no one came so i thought that maybe someone had k-kidnapped me and boss was gonna be pissed if i didn’t f-find a way to return and he’s gonna p-punish me so much i n-need to go back, i _have_ t-to go back, boss is g-gonna dust me, i’m sorry boss, i’m so sorry, _sorry sorry sorry, i’m sorry, sorry…_ ”

                Papyrus was certainly _not_ expecting the shorter skeleton to go from ‘trying to be threatening’ to ‘curled up, apologizing, and crying on the floor hahlp’ so quickly.  He was kind of expecting it to take longer, based on the amount of abuse the kid seems to have been through.  He kind of understood through the sobbed words why it happened so quickly though.  ‘sorry for being a disappointment’ and ‘please don’t hate me’ being the more prominent ones.  He sighed, using his magic to flip his light on.  He had gotten the two answers that he wanted plus some things he really would never want to know.  “Alright kid, I’m gonna have to break it to you now.”

                Red stopped doing everything as soon as Papyrus spoke.  He stopped breathing, he stopped sobbing, he just stopped.  The kid absolutely froze.  “what… did you c-call me?”

                Papyrus raised a non-existent eyebrow, looking even more confused than the other skeleton.  “…Kid?”

                “is that what you want me to be?”  Papyrus never thought he wanted to hear an anxious hesitance or a stutter in someone’s voice as must as he desperately wanted it now.  The voice had gone from stuttering and on the brink of despair to absolutely dead.  It just flopped over, kicked the bucket, fell asleep, innocently retired, yielded up its spirit and left, quitted the stage, and has never been heard of since.  However you want to say that.  The tears stopped falling as red eye-lights met his own orange ones, yet Red still wasn’t looking at him but was more looking through and past him.

                Papyrus sighed, deciding to ignore that question.  “You’re in a different dimension, not your own.  ‘Boss’ or whatever doesn’t exist here unless he came here the same way you did – which is extremely doubtful since he hasn’t found you yet.  My name is Papyrus; do you mind if I call you Red?”  At the silent confusion, Papyrus sighed.  He _really_ didn’t want to deal with this.  He’d rather go back to a time where he didn’t feel guilty for existing in the same vicinity as this Sans-not-Sans.  His Sans was happy, even when he had those ‘dreams’ where Papyrus died in front of him – even when the human rejected his fun puzzles.  This skeleton – this was _not_ Sans.  This was an emotionally and mentally distraught skeleton that has many visible and invisible scars all over and happens to claim the same name as his adorable older brother.  So no, this was not Sans.  “Anyways, stay there.  I’ll bring up some food.”

                “you’re giving me food?”  The little skeleton muttered right before Papyrus, lazy as ever, teleported to the kitchen – causing him to stumble once he landed.  He couldn’t help the shocked expression that broke his tough mask down as soon as he balanced himself on the way-too-short sink.  No sleep _and_ no food?  What even?  Why ‘Boss’, just… why?  Rubbing the heels of his palms into his eye sockets cleared away any sort of emotional evidence… and reminded him that he was _still in possession_ of the other skeleton’s soul.  He had worried that Red might go on the defensive and act as a cornered animal (and that Sans would be home when he woke up) – attacking anything and everything within sight.  So he had gently pulled Red’s soul out of him with his magic, unable to truly see the soul until the orange magic placed the terribly-scarred-and-almost-melting soul within his hands and disappeared.  It wasn’t even in the heart shape that a soul was supposed to resemble – it almost appeared that someone had cut it at an angle then tried gluing it back together even through the mass of black marks all over it.  You could tell at one point it was a bright and beautiful red color by the remnants of a dirty and ugly red glow from behind the black.  He was merely observing it and trying to guess what could possibly disturb a soul so deeply when Red had hurriedly jumped out of the bed.

                “Here.”  Papyrus dropped a plate with three of Sans’ microwaved tacos onto his bed, noticing how the shorter skeleton had composed himself some.  Bored eyes moved lazily from Pap’s face to the plate before a blink later focusing on him.  Red himself had moved from the scared position next to Pap’s bed to a relaxed leaning position against Papyrus’ bedside drawers, he hands stuffed in his jacket pockets.  Papyrus got the strange feeling that maybe this was what Red looked like before all the real damage had occurred – an irritating little punk.  After a lazy staring contest for nearly five minutes, Pap sighed.  “They aren’t poisoned or anything, just eat.”

                “j-just like that?”  Red seemed a bit baffled, his head tilting to the side as his brow furrowed in confusion.  “no tricks, no rules, no… anything?”  Papyrus heaved a sigh, his eye-sockets shutting for the moment it took him to think ‘am I really surprised that people expected him to work for his food in his timeline?’  But hey, at least the kid had lessened his stuttering while not killing his voice like he did before.  An idea formed in his head on how to get Red to relax and realize that this timeline wasn’t anything like his own.

                “Sure, I want you to exchange words with me.”  Papyrus winked, already able to tell that the shorter skeleton was even more confused by this.  Not that he really cared, he just turned towards the chair he was sitting in before and made himself comfortable.  It took a bit more of waiting before Red started eating the tacos slowly, picking up speed quickly once his magic made his lack of food apparent.

                Papyrus kept one lazy eye-light on the kid, noticing the smaller details.  Red seemed to hunch over the plate, like a cat that is ready to defend the treats they had earned as if someone were going to take them back.  It hurt Papyrus a little.  Not because Red was acting like that around him, hell no.  The kid had every right in the world to act like that towards him, he didn’t know Papyrus at all (not that he really planned on letting Red get to know him either).  But because Red was acting like that _at all_ made it obvious that he was quite used to being deprived of basic needs that were just within arm’s reach, _that_ is what hurts Papyrus.  Adding in how he waited for the ‘go ahead’ to eat made it even worse – it made him think of that one time that he had somehow gotten a human tv show on the tellie.  It had shown a human training a canine creature (or at least, a creature that made him think of an Annoying Dog but it was black and brown and the commentary called it a ‘German Shephard’) to sit and ignore that food had been placed in front of it.  They held the ‘German Shephard’ in that position (supposedly for five minutes, as the commentary said) and told it no whenever it went for the food before allowing it to eat.  They did the same thing with another canine creature and hit its snout when it went for the food without the okay.  Was this maybe how Red had been treated by someone?  As nothing more than a pet to be trained?  He wasn’t sure he wanted to know this either.

                Red also seemed to be on the verge of tears, simply from tacos that were made by someone that acted a _lot_ like a two-year-old and were weeks old and microwaved.  How did someone get that happy from something like that?  Unless he was on the verge of tears due to how awful they tasted but forced himself to eat it anyways, thinking that he wouldn’t be fed again until someone was feeling generous enough or decided to force him into doing something he didn’t want to do to get the ‘treat’ at the end.  Either way, the tears were definitely worth noticing.

                “So, what’s your timeline like?”  Papyrus didn’t really _want_ to ask but he felt he needed to have a better understanding of how the Sans-Not-Really-Sans would act within this timeline – as they say, backgrounds are everything and determine how someone would act.

                “normal, i guess.”  Red shrugged warily, dubiously watching as Papyrus passed the broken soul back and forth between his two hands, never really touching the battered thing.  “can-“  Red seemed to be about to say something before taking another bite of the taco in his hand, effectively shutting himself up.

                “Hmm…”  Papyrus slowly looked down at the soul in his grasp before looking back at Red.  “If you say so.”  He really hated to think that normal could possibly cause this destruction so easily.  Looking a little confused (Okay, no, Papyrus lied, he looked a _lot_ confused – but he also looked like he was trying to hide it so Pap gave him the benefit of the doubt), Red simply continued eating.  “Who is Boss?”

                “… boss is boss.  i suppose he’s my version of you, if your name is really… that.  you’re way too laidback though.  also, boss wouldn’t be caught dead in that hoodie.  he prefers black and showy clothing.”  Making these observations out loud seemed to cause Red to relax a little.

                “And he’s the one that caused all those scars?”  Wow, Pap had never seen someone relax a little before tensing up to twice the amount of before so quickly previous to this moment.  Like, how do you even describe how quickly he went from softening clay to a solid ass rock buried in a mountain?

                “no, he didn’t cause _any_ of them.  it’s my fault that they happened.”  Papyrus could _definitely_ see that laying any blame whatsoever onto the so-called ‘Boss’ was an ineffable action and he wasn’t going to get anywhere that way.  Looking up at the ceiling with a bored shrug, he flipped his legs over one of the arms of the chair while he lay back on the other arm.

                “So what were you doing before you came here?”  Pap was bored enough to continue asking questions.  Well, what else were you supposed to do with something that proved that your research and hypotheses that you gave up on so long ago was true?

                “… stuff.”  Pap supposed that maybe that ‘stuff’ had to do with ‘Boss’ but he didn’t press for it.  Honestly, this inter-dimensional Sans was pretty boring to talk with.  Too bad his blueberry wasn’t around, he kind of wanted to go find Sans just to get lectured – it was kinda amusing when someone so much shorter than him lectured him about his life choices.  _Especially_ when those life choices caused him to say a pun.

                “Guess I’ll let you off the leash of questions for now, Sans should be home soon with Chara.”  Papyrus hated himself sometimes but his eyes had glanced over to see Red fidgeting with the leash and he couldn’t help it.  Red’s phalanges jerked a bit before he set his hands back down in his lap, appearing to be frowning slightly.  Papyrus didn’t think too much about it – after all, it wasn’t his problem if this weird Sans didn’t like jokes – and instead walked out of the room this time.  He didn’t feel like teleporting.

                Standing at the top of the stairs, he glared down them.  Stairs.  His mortal enemy.  Well… not quite mortal but hey.  Better than saying his ‘inanimate enemy’.  Trust him, he’s tried calling them that before and Sans found it hilarious.  Eh.  Time to teleport.

                Disappearing then reappearing on the couch, he lay himself across it comfortably as he observed the soul still within his possession.  What was he going to do with it?  He had no idea.  He didn’t want to gain any LV, so destroying it was a ‘no-no’ (plus Sans would throw a bitch-fit if he found dust all over Pap’s room).  It didn’t seem like the black tar-looking marks would come off if he rubbed or anything.  Plus, that would be a little too intimate for him.  He wasn’t planning on sharing his room with a horny version of his older brother – that would make this Under _lust_ and that just wouldn’t do.  Hm?  Strange sequence of thoughts.  Oh well.

                The door slammed open as Papyrus was staring intently at the broken and scarred soul, trying to observe any possibly visible scars, and he ignored it as his Blueberry ran through the door and straight to the kitchen.  It was pretty interesting how his thoughts were ‘where is Sans?  I need to make sense of this insanity that has made itself known’ until Sans ran through the door, then it was ‘hm… wonder what’s for dinner… who’s turn is it again?’ immediately after he did.  Yet his eyes didn’t waver one bit.  “Hey Blue.”

                “Hi Papy!  OMG, you won’t be able to guess what happened this time!  It all started around the time that Professor Undyne came around and-” annnnnnd… Pap.exe has stopped responding.  Mostly due to the fact that he was that bored.  But he still hummed or nodded whenever there was a pause in speech.  It was rude to completely ignore his brother even if he didn’t care about the topic.  He didn’t notice that Chara had snuck over to him – usually the brat was less sneaky.

                “Hey!  What’s that, Papy?!”  Chara tried reaching for the mangled soul – the brat was always so grabby, why was that – but Papyrus pulled it out of reach.

                “C’mon kid, let me keep a few secrets.”  He winked, while Chara was still reaching for the soul.  They wouldn’t be able to grab it now, since it was out of reach entirely.  Unless they learnt how to climb his body like Sans had.  That would be severely concerning though.

                “No way Paps!  Lemme see!”  Looking down at their pleading face, Papyrus thought of his options.  Well, it wouldn’t hurt since this seemed to be a Pacifist Chara instead of a Neutral or Genocidal Chara.  Pulling the soul back to where Chara could see – slapping their hands when they tried to grab hold – he was glad he wasn’t the only one shocked by the state of the soul.  “I-is that…?”

                “Yep, it’s a monster’s soul.”  Chara deadpanned their expression, which was pretty interesting when you can only see a smile on their face even when they are angry.

                “That can’t be.  It doesn’t even look like an upside down heart!”  They always called monster souls ‘upside down hearts’ – in Pap’s opinion, their soul was an upside down heart.  “Plus it’s all black and stuff!  Aren’t souls supposed to glow pretty colors?  It isn’t even glowing!”

                “Ah, that would be because it’s severely scarred.  I think they’re from another dimension.”  He knew the kid had seen MK’s lab – after all, he had seen the Pacifist route so many times.  So the kid must have seen MK’s work, read all the journal entries the brilliant prodigy had written and recorded.  He also knew the kid had seen his own little lab, the one that’s hidden in the shed behind the house.  He had pretty much invited the brat there himself, for whatever reason – it might have been his amusement in the kid actually saying his ‘secret passwords’ when really it was a joke on them.  Sans ruined it a bit by looking for him in his room but hey, it was still fairly entertaining.

                “Wha- what do you mean they’re from another dimension?!”  Chara’s eyes started sparkling happily, disturbing Papyrus thoroughly.  After all, only Sans could pull off the sparkly eye look – after all, he literally changed his eyes to stars and it was kinda cute.

                “I mean, his name is Sans and he isn’t Blueberry over there.”  Papyrus was getting bored with their questions.  After all, it wasn’t a topic he really even cared about.

                “WHAT?!”  Papyrus winced as Sans’ voice appeared really loud and really excited next to his head.  It was really loud.  “There’s another me?!”  Such excitement poured from the short blueberry, he was literally shaking like a Flowey on drugs.  Not that kind that made them dopey though, the kind that gave them a bunch of energy – usually of the plant food variety.

                “Yep.”  Holy Toriel, he didn’t realize that saving a monster from another dimension would cause so many questions.

                “Where?!”  Sans was now holding Pap’s hoodie sleeve.  It was a wonderful contrast to the jumpy and irritatingly scared one upstairs (by irritatingly scared, he meant that the skeleton seemed irritated and scared at the same time) but it was still a little over the top.

                “In my room.  He was hurt on his way here so I’m letting him rest in my bed.”  Or on the floor next to his bed, as the case were.  Sans would lecture him if he said that he was allowing a guest to stay on the floor though so better safe than sorry.

                “Oh my gosh!  Is he okay?!  I’ll make some tacos for him to eat and recover!”  With that, a blue blur raced towards the kitchen.  Meanwhile Chara looked a little lost for a moment.

                “What’s up kid?”  He knew he’d regret either asking or not asking so asking seemed like the safer bet.

                “If he was hurt on the way here… then what hurt him?”  _It wasn’t me_ was all Pap could read from the brat’s eyes, which were trained on his own eye-lights.  He sighed, standing up so he could stop the frenzied noises in the kitchen.

                “I dunno kid.  Maybe the hole he jumped through to get here.”  With that, he went to the kitchen.  “Sans, stop, he can just eat one of the stock piled tacos we have already.”

                Red didn’t know how long he sat there in silence – but it was wonderful!  He never wanted another soul to bother him, just leave him be in this room and never show up again!  Well, that’s what he thought at first but the silence was getting to him.  What if that Not-Boss showed up again and decided that, since he was already used and abused by his Boss, that he can use and abuse him as well?  He didn’t think he had it in him to tell Not-Boss ‘no’.  Plus, this ‘Not-Boss’ thing was getting ridiculous.  He needed to think of a different nickname for the taller skeleton.

                When he heard the door bang open loudly downstairs, he flinched so hard he probably added a new crack to the back of his skull from the side drawers.  The whole conversation was muffled until a really loud ‘what’ came up to him from the floor below.  Straining his hearing to get the rest of the conversation, he was almost disappointed that he missed everything because of how muffled it was.  It sounded like three different voices were down there.

                There might have been another crack about half an hour later when Not-Boss took a shortcut that apparently ended directly in front of him.  It certainly hurt enough for there to be a new one.  Staring at each other for a moment, Red looked to the side.  The first thing he thought of, he blurted out quietly.  “what is today’s date?”

                “The 21st, why?”  Not-Boss’ brow raised in curiosity.

                “Of what month?”  Red almost began panicking.  If it was August again…

                “September.”

                “Oh.”  With that, he focused on his phalanges.


	3. October 21st

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sorry guys, internet crashed on me on Friday so I had to wait until Monday to post this... Still setting the date as the 21st though

                Red did it again.  It was beginning to get on his nerves.  There were very few things that the shorter skeleton did or said that _didn’t_ irritate him but this one _really_ needed to stop.  “It’s fine, not your fault.”  Papyrus said, shrugging his shoulders as he swept up the broken plate and Red was cowering away.

                “sorry…”  He muttered, once again.  Honestly, it was Papyrus’ fault that it happened.  He had taken a shortcut but hadn’t known that Red was going to be walking through the room where he landed.  Chara found it hilarious, of course, and was uselessly laughing off to the side.  Blue was training with Alphys as he did every week on this day so he wasn’t around.  Red seemed to have it in his skull that he would be punished every time that he broke something or messed something up some.  It was never bad enough that anyone found it irritating but the constant apologizing was bugging everyone that was around – except Chara, they were too busy laughing their ass off every single time.

                “Really, kid, it’s fine.”  Pap was so very close to snapping – he would if it didn’t take more effort to get irritated than it did to fix the problem.  Looking into Red’s red eye-lights, Pap felt a shiver race down his spine.  _He doesn’t believe that it isn’t his fault._

“sorry…”  Once again, Red muttered this.  Pap didn’t bother correcting him this time.

                As the day continued, Pap noticed something.  Everything, no matter what it was, seemed to be Red’s fault.  If it didn’t directly connect to Red, Pap could still hear him mutter under his breath a small apology.

                If someone tripped and fell, Red would apologise immediately for not catching them or warning them about the stuffed bunny on the floor.

                If someone’s fingers slipped and they dropped the plate, Red would flinch then gruffly apologise even if he was rooms away from the incident.

                Someone got a paper cut, “I’m sorry.”

                Someone (aka, Pap) fell off the couch, half asleep, “I’m sorry I took up too much room.”

                Chara couldn’t figure out how to communicate something in not vague terms, “I’m sorry I’m so stupid.”  It was getting a little ridiculous – even Chara was finding it less funny each time until they were just sitting there silently, staring at Red blankly every time the inevitable apology came.

                “It isn’t your fault.”  “It’s fine.”  “Seriously kid, how is this your fault?”  Every time Red apologised near Pap, Pap said something in response – each time knowing for certain that the kid wasn’t going to believe him, simply by seeing the look in Red’s eye-lights and the way he drew away each time.

                An idea started forming in his mind as he heard Red apologise once again for something he probably wasn’t even involved in through the wall.  It was crazy and probably pointless but…  Well, he had a feeling it would work.  The idea stems from one of the Resets that they’ve gone through.  Stalking Red around the house was fairly easy, he didn’t even have to move away from where he was sat on the couch.  It didn’t take long for Red to apologise for something again.

                Blue couldn’t find any of his special taco seasoning, causing him to come out to ask if someone had seen it before noticing it right above the stove – or so Papyrus assumed, seeing as Blue looked away then walked away – and Red was quick to apologise for moving it.  This was where his plan came into play.

During one of Chara’s insane Resets, where Chara was murderously Genocidal, Pap had always assumed that Chara was muttering something stupid like ‘kill’ over and over under their breath and never really paid any attention to it.  Why pay attention to the words of a lying murderer?  Especially when said murderer had _killed his precious brother_?  So during their fight, he didn’t pay any attention to what Chara was saying – instead focusing on the maniacal grin and megalomaniac way the kid was going at him.  Each dodge of the knife, some liquid dripped onto him.  He couldn’t figure out whether it was sweat or blood dripping on him.

                _Around halfway through the fight, after the kid had refused his fake Mercy, they were having issues breathing through their laughter as the kid came closer and closer to stabbing him.  It almost sounded like they were hissing while still whispering through their heavy breathing.  After sending the kid all the way back through the hall and watching them maneuver their body to avoid the bones from the ceiling and the floor, pushing themselves off the wall right after hitting it to avoid the bones coming from it.  While giving his speech before keeping his turn, he noticed the kid’s eyes were leaking.  It might’ve been because he was completely exhausted, but it truly looked as if the human child was crying._

_That was when he noticed what was being said as the kid stumbled back over to their line of options, heading straight for the Fight button.  “I’msorrysorrysorrysorrysorrySansAsgoresorrysorrysorryAlphysNapstabotsorrysorrysorrysorryI’msosorryI’msorryI’msorryPapysorrysorrysorryGrillbyI’msososososorry*sniffle*sorryFloweysorryChilldrakesorrysorrysorry’msosorrysorrysor*hiccup*sorryI’msor- “continuing on and on, not once stopping even as they fully broke the dams on their tears and truly started sobbing, they continued saying sorry as they were force teleported away from the Fight button.  Shakily they would stand back up and begin stumbling back to the Fight button.  Wherever they were within the psychopath who called themselves Frisk, Chara was apologising and crying their heart out.  Each time, Frisk was getting closer and closer to almost forcing Chara into hitting the Fight button.  Then, Papyrus had felt an intense sleepiness after watching them sob on the ground across the hall._

_The next thing he knew, he was dodging the swipe of Chara’s knife.  Looking over at their face, seeing only the maniacal grin and not hearing anymore apologies, he felt a smirk go across his own skull.  “Did you really think I would just sit there and let you-“, nearly choking on those words, he met his killer’s eyes.  They looked absolutely terrified and an intense amount of self-loathing made itself known.  He knew that look himself, whenever he saw himself in the mirror and couldn’t find it in himself to be as happy – go – lucky as everyone within Snowdin was._

_A constant flow of tears fell from Chara’s eyes as the same could be said on the apologies, cascading from their mouth in a waterfall of regret.  Wow, Pap didn’t realize how poetic dying could make him.  He should probably say some stupid pun now – but Sans isn’t around to get upset.  Where was he aga – oh, that’s right.  Sans was dead.  Alphys was dead.  Undyne should have evacuated all of the other monsters into her underground lab.  He knew the kid had seen it before but, judging by the look in their eyes before he had been swiped at for the last time, they weren’t coherent enough to go there.  He could tell he wasn’t going to last much longer, deciding that he could say something cool instead of something stupid before he died._

_But no matter what, he couldn’t think of anything cool.  He thought of a few puns, he figured out why pi is shortened to 3.14 for the first time in his life instead of just memorized as he did before, and he thought about MK for the first time in quite a while.  He thought about saying his last little speech that he had said during the last Genocidal route but… well, it didn’t make sense to say the same stupid thing again.  So…  Maybe this time, his last words would count?  “Hey kiddo…”  The kid’s head snapped up and the wine-red eyes stared despairingly back into his own eye-lights.  He fell to his knee-caps, getting closer to the kid’s height that way – really, it was just extremely difficult to hold himself up any longer._

                He met deep red eye-lights, just as he had met wine-red eyes so many Resets ago, he cut the quietly said ‘I’m sorry’ off with a calmly said “I forgive you.”  _Chara stared back at Papyrus’ dusting form in confusion, knife falling to the ground due to shocked numb hands.  Surely, the skeleton hadn’t said such a taboo sentence as forgiving a murderer, a true monster rather than being a magical creature.  He couldn’t have but he did.  Papyrus couldn’t hear any longer but he knew the kid was bawling loudly as they hugged him tightly._   Since then, there had been no genocide, no LV, and certainly no EXP.

                Red snapped his skull over to look at Papyrus’ relaxed form, staring at him in confusion, shock, and disbelief.  Papyrus watched nonchalantly, inhaling deep breaths of metaphorical cancer, as he observed and commit to memory every look and expression change.  At the end of the insane rollercoaster of emotions flying across Red’s face, only a blank and stony expression appeared.  It was a parody from Red’s previous expression of ‘I don’t believe you’, except much more stressed out.

                Standing, Pap leisurely walked into the kitchen as Red sat there, hopefully contemplating Pap’s words.  Bending down to whisper into the over-excited Blue’s ear canal, Pap explained his plans.  He already knew that Blue wasn’t really the way he acted – he was _much_ smarter than he let on.  Blue understood much more than anyone within this house did (this was including both Pap and Chara) and Pap knew from seeing the security videos that he acted as such so that Pap would be happier.

                Whispering the plans to Blue was easy, especially when Blue paused to pay more attention and didn’t make any loud noises, merely giving a small head bob.  Plan Commence.

**_…_ **

                Red didn’t know what was going on with his life.  He barely did before, but at least then he had rules to follow.  Ever since he was allowed out of Not-Boss’ room, he had been scrambling for the right things to say.

 _Don’t speak unless ordered by the person holding his leash.  Toriel wanted him to bark and whine and be good puppy.  Chillby wanted him to scream but never specific words – unless it was ‘please’ or ‘no’.  Undyne didn’t even want that, just nonsense screams of pain.  Alphys wanted utter silence.  MK wanted role play, more often than not.  Boss wanted to hear nothing other than screams, ‘yes Boss’, and apologies._   No one held his leash here.  His leash had been discarded when he was allowed out of Not-Boss’ room.  Chara gave verbal cues but never what he was supposed to say.  Blue, his other self, was a whirlwind of energy that spoke as if he wanted someone to speak as well but, instead, never waited for a response.  Not-Boss… Red had absolutely no clue what Not-Boss wanted.  One moment he’d be looking for confirmation, the next he’d be jokingly looking for a negation.  Not-Boss was impossible to understand; he just really could not figure him out.

 _Follow orders and never fight back.  He always paid attention to his orders.  If he was given an order to fight back, which never happened, he supposed he would probably pretend just like he did with Toriel’s puppy kink.  Well, the Royal Guard had started to buy him so they could race each other to catch him after ordering him to run but, more often than not, they would start bickering soon after they started then they would forget about the fact they were supposed to be chasing him while he was huddled in the tree branches of a nearby pine tree after taking a quick shortcut there.  He would stay there until Boss came to get him._   There were no orders here.  When they wanted him to do something, they _asked_ him to do it.  He hadn’t heard someone be so polite to him since the last time they had made it to the outside.

 _Don’t eat without permission.  Otherwise, he would be severely punished.  Once, Boss had found him with a hot cat and he couldn’t walk for a bit after, even though there was a Reset soon after._ Here, they expected him to have eaten at some point within the day.  Whether it’s going over to Muffet’s with Chara or Not-Boss or reheating a taco thing from the fridge, he’s supposed to have eaten _at the very least_ three times a day.  Not-Boss tried to get him to eat more throughout the day, saying something about ‘breakfast in bed, first breakfast, second breakfast, brunch, midday meal, lunch, afternoon meal, afternoon snack, dunch, supper, dinner, movie dinner, dinner in bed, horror movie snack, midnight meal, midnight snack, and dinfast’, with the last meal of the day eaten by 3 in the next morning before going to sleep.

 _Apologise when you do something wrong.  Asgore had once thrown his bones onto the dilapidated throne that had been kept in case Toriel came back – dusting him immediately after for breaking his wife’s throne.  Because he apologised so quickly, he had a quick death rather than a torture session.  He had been punished for breaking a plate while making lunch, but it was a quick punishment of only a few chipped ribs and a broken arm and a warning to not do it again because he apologised.  Apologising stopped him from suffering, it kept him from giving up totally._   They didn’t want to hear him here… they would always tell him that it wasn’t his fault.  That they were to blame because of how they ‘startled’ him or ‘appeared out of nowhere’ or even ‘I ran into you, it’s my fault, not yours.’  What were they talking about?  Of course it’s his fault.  It was _always_ his fault.  Red had always firmly believed this.  If it wasn’t his fault, then whose was it?

                Wait, had he always believed this?  He couldn’t remember a time it wasn’t his fault so it must be so.  But he almost felt that there was a nagging voice in the back of his head questioning his actions and words.

                Why did he apologise when Blue accidentally dropped a plate in the kitchen?  Sure it broke, but when did it become his fault?  Red pushed that voice away, it was his fault because he wasn’t helping Blue make his weird meat, veggie, cheese pouches.  Red apologised again for calling them weird in his head, noticing that Not-Boss looking at him weirdly from his place _stretched_ across the couch – he decided right then that Not-Boss was now named Stretch.  Wait, what did he mean that it wasn’t Red’s fault?  What a complete and utter bullshit lie.

                Why did he apologise when Stretch rolled off the couch in his sleep?  He was on the couch first, Stretch had curled up to nap on the other side.  Surely it was his fault since he had such a large body form, he just took up too much space.  He knew as a matter of fact that him starving himself wouldn’t cause him to get any smaller though.  It worked for other monsters but not for him.  Red apologised again for the fact that he couldn’t get any smaller no matter how hard he tried, noticing the strange look from Stretch again.  There it was, yet again, even though it really was his fault.  Why was he so insistent on telling Red that it wasn’t Red’s fault?  It was so obvious that it was.

                Chara was once again attempting to tell Red something in their own really strange way but Red just couldn’t comprehend it.  The child tried explaining the human slang once again but it just made no sense to him, so Red apologized at first for not understanding.  Then Chara seemed irritated so Red apologised for being stupid.  Chara threw their hands up in exasperation so Red apologised again as Chara walked away, more than likely angry with him.  Stretch said that sentence again – this time Red rightfully ignored him, upset that he had angered the human by being stupid.

                He had moved the taco seasoning when he was cleaning the kitchen and had forgotten to put it back – he was always useless like that – so Blue was searching for it, maybe even for a prolonged period of time.  Maybe he found it when he returned into the kitchen but Red felt terrible.  He knew they wouldn’t punish him, he knew that from the past month (if he ignored how Stretch _still_ had his soul and would use that against him at times) but still, he couldn’t help the sliver of fear that raced through each time he fucked up.  “I’m sorr-“

                “I forgive you.”  Red’s whole world froze.  Time froze even though Red could see the second hand ticking steadly across the face.  There was no sound even though he knew Blue was making tacos which was _always_ noisy, no matter what.  He couldn’t feel himself _breath_.

                He couldn’t understand.  No, understanding was impossible.  It was unreachable.  He couldn’t understand.  _He couldn’t understand. **He couldn’t understand. He just couldn’t understand!!!**_  Stretch just… _forgave_ him?!  What happened to the stupid ‘oh, it’s not your fault, don’t beat yourself up over it Red’?  He turned to stare at Stretch, calm orange eye-lights staring back at him.  “I forgive you, Red.”


	4. November 21st

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm not even going to excuse myself this time. I hardcore procrastinated. This is why I can't have a real job. Well, hope you all enjoy even if I'm not entirely sure exactly what I wrote since I did a little at a time. It seemed a bit too heavy for me and I have absolutely no experience with this kind of stuff, even reading it since not many people like writing fantasy romances (my personal favorite) with a character who is mentally breaking down.

                _“hey pap, where’s frisk?”  When he had gone down the stairs the first time that the kid had Reset, he didn’t even realize there had **been** a Reset.  Of course, Boss always corrected him, and that time was no different.  After a loud smack of cloth-covered bone against bone reverberated through the room, Sans found himself against the wall with a livid Boss in front of him._

_“Mutt, who gave you such permission to call me by a disgusting nicking of my name?”  Boss seethed, blazing eyes glaring into his own.  Figuring maybe Paps had finally lost it, Sans spoke slowly and hesitantly._

_“frisk…?  y’know, the human?”  At the blank expression on Boss’ face, Sans started noticing the surroundings.  The home that Boss, Frisk, and he shared on the Surface was pretty much the same setup as their Underground home – he would know as he was the one to build it since Paps was now encouraging the use of his magic.  The only difference was that the Surface house was more homely and… put together.  There were no scratches or dents or holes or broken furniture in the Surface home.  But there were in the Underground house.  There were a lot of scratches, dents, holes, and broken furniture in the Underground house.  There was a reason why they hadn’t been there in four months._

_“There’s a human?  Really?  Where?!”  Just like that, Boss changed from an angry demon to an excitable puppy.  If puppies were spiky and bent on destroying anything in their way.  Sans knew for a fact that only trained puppies were like that.  Which was pretty cool, in his opinion._

_“uh…  boss, you okay?”  Boss didn’t remember Frisk?  What was that about?  Frisk was Boss’ best fucking friend – BFF for short – and the only reason Boss had ever forgotten about Frisk was when… the kid… Reset.  Mentally groaning, he tried to think of any reasons why the kid had Reset their perfect ending.  Where he couldn’t find reasons, he found ways to get back at the kid.  And there were a **lot** of ways to get revenge, as far as he was concerned._

_“I’m perfectly fine Sans, why do you ask?”  Boss peered down at the smaller skeleton before crossing his arms.  “No matter, you said before there was a human.  Frisk, was it?  Where is this human?”  As far as he was concerned, Sans was the best at revenge._

_“yeah boss, certainly.”  Grinning and very **very** irritated, Red let himself betray the child by informing Boss about the placement of where he had met the kid the first time.  “they should show up somewhere nearby my sentry station.”_

_………………_

_“Sans, why is there no human?”  Boss looked down at the shorter skeleton who was relaxing in his booth.  “You said that a human would show up here.  Yet, there is no human.”_

_“maybe i got the timing wrong?”  That wasn’t likely since he had met the child on the same day many times as the kid kept forgetting to Save.  Perhaps the kid was trying to do something with Toriel this time around?  Who knows._

_“ **Sans…** ”  Sweat-dropping, Sans met the easily angered skeleton’s blazing eyes.  He chuckled nervously._

_“chill boss, would it sleigh you if you learnt some patience?”  Cracking jokes always made him feel better – the same was **not** to be said about Boss._

_“ **SANS!** ”  Papyrus glared even harder, stomping over and digging his gloved hand into Sans’ skull.  Sans chuckled nervously as his skull began to ache from this.  But he knew that Pap wouldn’t intentionally hurt him, he just didn’t know his own strength sometimes.  Boss was as harmless as a mosquito._

**** _“What a bad dog you’ve been…”  Boss’ voice echoed through the near empty room where Sans was laying uselessly on the floor, chained to the post in the floor.  He doubted that he even really heard Boss right but he knew that he had been dreaming just a moment ago.  That memory was from so long ago.  Was it even really a memory though?  Shit if he knew.  All he really knew was that Boss was angry.  Again._

**_…_ **

                Papyrus didn’t know what to do with this edgy Sans.  One moment, he’d be boisterous, angry, and cussing left and right then, the next, he’d be quiet and submissive.  Then there were times that Pap managed to come across him when he was in a panic attack.  Pap didn’t know what to do during these times besides stay as far away as possible – the panic was most likely caused by his evil doppelganger who, in the right light apparently, he looked like.

                This time just happened to be one of those times.  It wasn’t like it didn’t happen often so he was used to coming across Red in a panicky state – it just generally ended soon after Paps showed up holding a bottle of honey or yawning or even just because Blue was climbing all over him in hopes that Paps would put the cig out.  Now though, it seemed that it had gone so far that even seeing him do something out of character for ‘Fell’ (as he had dubbed the so far no face skeleton since calling him ‘Boss’ made him feel weird) that it didn’t even register.  He didn’t dare get any closer.

                As soon as he had entered the room, Red had immediately frozen up and began to shake in fear and sobs while Papyrus was forced to stop and sit against the wall next to the door.  He had gotten to the kitchen without anything happening and had grabbed a bottle of honey – he was chugging that in the light of the fridge when he heard the sound of blankets moving and the couch squeaking.  Assuming that it was just Red getting comfortable on the couch, he finished off the bottle and threw it away before exiting the room only to meet panicked red eyes (magic flared out and everything).  The floor next to the door was really the only place he could be without Red moving away or defending himself.  He had to guess that it was a nightmare about Fell again.  Because, even if Red had taken to calling him Stretch or Papy, like Blue does (if only to tease him when he was in a better mood), Papyrus knew without a doubt in his mind that Red thought at any point of time Papyrus was going to suddenly turn on him.  Become just like the Boss that Red feared.

                He also knew that Red just wouldn’t call him ‘Papyrus’ since he thought that, if he did, the ‘dream’ would end and ‘reality’ would hit him.  Hit him hard and without any Mercy.

                Giving silent support was not his forte though.  “Hey Red.”  The sobs quieted some and the grip Red had on his skull loosened.  “Do you ever wonder why you exist?”

                Silence for a moment before Red responded with a rough voice.  It took a moment before Papyrus figured out that Red had said “what, you gonna dust me?”  Papyrus thought of his answer.

                “No, not quite.  i’d be too bonely.”  A weak laugh in reply made Pap grin a little before getting serious.  “I, myself, wonder why I exist.  I realized it a bit before you showed up, y’know.”  There was a moment of silent sitting as Pap waited to see if Red would respond.

                “… why do you think that you exist?”  Red’s voice was more clear this time around, Pap relaxing a little where he sat, leaning his skull back against the wall.

                “to protect this world and all of the people in my life.  If your world is anything like mine, then you also have a human who sometimes threatens your world.  Maybe you remember it, maybe you don’t, but i remember it clearly.”  Paps twirled his fingers around themselves, watching the motion rather than looking at Red.  “I fought them every time.  Sometimes I would win, other times they stayed Determined and won themselves.  then they would Reset, bringing everyone back to life only to do it all over again.”  There was a pause as Papyrus waited for a response.

                “… i remember.”  Whispered quietly, Red looked down.  He remembered all too well.  “boss changed after frisk went nuts, when frisk started getting called chara – just like your human is called chara.”

                “Really?”  Stretch sounded surprised, moving around a bit.  “So then, who owns the café in your snowdin?”

                “… chillbz.  i suppose he’s my version of your grillby.  muffet is the nutjob in hotland that you don’t mess with unless you don’t want your life or your money anymore.”  Struggling to remember monsters he used to know so well, the names were even harder to remember.  Stretch looked even more interested.

                “then, queen Toriel?”  Flinching back at that name, Red tried to ignore the most recent memories that came to mind.  Toriel _was_ a noble monster, the most sane of them all before the human came down to the Underground, and she loved jokes.  She still did but…  Red was avoiding those memories, with very little success.

                “… tori,” yes, that was what he used to call his friend – or as much a friend as they could be in a kill or be killed world.  “she uh, she used to guide the human through… until the human got to Home.  and um…  i can’t…  i don’t remember.”  He couldn’t remember.  That was… impossible, he should be able to remember how Tori used to be.  Toriel liked puns just as much as he did and she liked – wait, when did he like puns?  He hated them.  Boss hated puns so he had to hate them as well.  Boss’ customer liked puns even though Boss hates them and scorched cinnamon-butterscotch pies even though they were practically inedible.  He would know the pies were barely edible, Boss’ customer often made him eat so that he didn’t become a starved mutt.

                Stretch watched as Red’s eye-lights dimmed after muttering something almost silently.  He started his explanation confidently after a moment of silence, almost shocking Stretch by how suddenly he had a voice, but gradually, as the words broke apart and barely did any sentence forming, his voice faded.  The last words he heard were ‘and um…’ before it was near silent.  This would worry Stretch if it hadn’t happened many times already, usually when Stretch did something new or made a pun.  “Red?”  Usually saying his new name snapped Red out of it, sometimes they had to say his name several times.  Sometimes Stretch had to leave the room and have Blue wake him up.  “hey, kid, ya there?”  Stretch wasn’t exactly willing to go wake Blue up.  What alarmed him more than the silence was Red suddenly whining – it sounded almost exactly like a dog.  “red?”

                Red’s head swiveled back to look at Stretch but it didn’t look like there was anyone there, even though the eye-lights were still lit.  This was getting real old, real fast.  “Red!”  Stretch snapped, trying to get Red’s attention.  Blue had _just_ gotten to sleep, come on, now was _not_ the time for a mental breakdown!  When all Stretch got was a blank stare, Stretch stood up to walk over to the kid.  No reaction yet.

                Boss’ customer was a fire-wielding maniac, in Boss’ own words.  He didn’t know whether that meant something bad or something good.  Probably something good, he decided, since Boss only called people he liked insane or maniacs.  But Boss also liked a lot of people who liked torturing his pet.  Boss’ pet was meant to take this abuse and do whatever is wanted from Boss’ customer – this one liked dogs.  Or, more specifically, they liked fake dogs – they hated real dogs, had kicked an ‘annoying pest’ out of their house very violently several times before.  ‘Several times’?  But the Annoying Dog had died every time?  Was it just a different one though?  He thought that Annoying Dogs were near extinct with only one left in the species, simply because everyone around killed them for being annoying, but maybe he was wrong.  He often was, he wouldn’t be surprised if he was.

                Oh, they wanted something from him.  Was it a game of fetch?  He liked fetch, getting the ball was nice and they were nice when he brought it back.  No?  It wasn’t a game of fetch?  Oh, it was a game of ‘settle’, as they called it.  He didn’t quite like this one as much, it made him rather uncomfortable when there were more things than just the tail within him, but he wasn’t allowed to not like something so he had to act like he liked Settle as much as he liked Fetch.  Maybe Fetch would happen after Settle, then Down would happen after that?  Down was his favourite game – but it was also the worst game if he got in wrong.  During the game of Down, they would tell him to ‘lay down’ and sometimes they wanted him to be a lapdog, other times they wanted him in the corner, even still other times they wanted him to lay in his bed.  The only thing was that it was a guessing sort of game, the kind that had dangerous repercussions if he got it wrong.  Once he was even dusted – dusted?  But he was alive now?  How in the world does one get dusted but still stay alive?  He was wrong again, more than likely.  Boss would punish him for being so stupid.

                Putting his hand on Red’s head didn’t even illicit a response.  Stretch poked the worn and cracked bone above Red’s browbone, tempted somewhat to see whether he could get a response by doing experiments – lazy ones of course, nothing extensive like he did when he was younger, maybe a whoopee cushion or a handshake buzzer type of experiment.  Then again, the handshake buzzer might be a bit too _shocking_ to use.  Stretch snickered at his mental joke before realizing he was still needing to figure out what was going on with Red.  Patting the shorter skeleton’s cheekbone lightly in an attempt to wake him up from whatever haze he was under, Stretch nearly jumped out of his _skin_ when Red leaned his head into his metacarpals.  A shiver went up Stretch’s spine when he realized something – this was the type of behaviour he had seen from the innkeepers when they were being affectionate with each other, Dogamy and Dogaressa.  Whenever Dogamy caressed his wife’s cheek, she would lean into the touch happily.  “C’mon Red, snap out of it.”  Stretch was about to start panicking; this was a little too much for even him to deal with.  He could barely deal with the Genocide route the few times he had seen it (mostly just channeling the negative energy into revenge but hey, at least he somewhat dealt with it), now he was in front of someone who looked as if he had seen a million and one Genocide routes and survived just barely.  It was a little overwhelming.

                Boss was angry again.  He couldn’t figure out why this was.  He was being a good mutt, he really thought he was, but maybe he wasn’t.  Oh, he was still being a dog.  Boss didn’t like dogs – even fake ones.  He preferred cats since they were the assassins of the animal kingdom.  Wait, that wasn’t Boss.  Jerking back from the panicked skeleton in front of him, Red blinked a few times.  Not-Bo – Stretch was kneeling in front of him.  Wasn’t Stretch on the other side of the room like a second ago?  “uh…?”  Red felt massively disoriented.

                “Kid, you good?”  Stretch’s brow was raised for this question, his hand dropping to rest on his leg.  It took Red a moment to realize that he was asked a question.

                “uhm, yeah, i think so?”  Red couldn’t tell.  But he didn’t feel too bad even if he couldn’t tell exactly why he zoned out like that.

                “You sure?”  There was a glint of something different in Stretch’s eye-lights, but Red had never seen that before.  Maybe it was some weird emotion that was limited to this universe?

                Stretch was a little worried, honestly.  He couldn’t tell you why he felt worried, but this was a little unusual even for this edgy skeleton.  Especially when the next sentence came out of his little skull.  “i need to g-get back to my world.”

                “Uh…  well, even if we had a way for you to go back, it wouldn’t exactly but a good idea to do so.  How about you, i dunno, sleep on it?  Give it a week or so before you decide, yeah?”  Stretch didn’t really know what to say about this.  On one hand, he would be glad for the feeling of stepping on broken glass to be gone.  On the other, he knew, or at least could guess a small fraction of it, what the shorter skeleton would be heading _back_ to, which was extremely dangerous and entirely unhealthy for him to do so.  Seriously, he needed to find a way to keep the kid _here_ but he also wanted to find some way to get him out of the house at the very least.  When Red muttered a reluctant affirmative, Stretch made his way back upstairs for his own sleep.

                Opening his door, he was startled to see a gloomy Blue sitting on his bed.  “He wants to go home, doesn’t he.”  Blue was quiet for the first time in quite a while, so Stretch shut his door to keep the conversation between themselves.

                “Yeah.”

                “Aren’t you gonna stop him?”  Blue asked, almost glaring at the ground.

                “Why me?  What makes you think _I_ can do anything here?”  Confused, Stretch thought back to any conversation he has had with Red.  Each and every time, the kid would always flinch back or be submissive.  Whereas, if Stretch wasn’t in sight, Red was a complete brat with a funny bone with anyone else.  Even then, his funny bone was more on the vulgar side so no one else found it funny except Stretch.  But whenever Stretch heard the jokes and laughed, Red would withdraw back into himself and become unresponsive to a point.

                “Did you know that he listens to you more than anyone else?  The only reason he’s even slightly more comfortable here now than he was a couple months ago is because of the ideas that you’ve proposed.  He wouldn’t stop apologizing and taking the blame for things – _you_ came up with the idea to get him to calm down with that.  He would go into a panic attack when he saw something that was a reminder of something in his other world – _you_ are the one who’s figured out that you just need to make it funny.  Red was in horrible condition when he got here – _you_ made everything better for him.  He’s on the highway to self-recovery but even this highway has exits and bumps or ditches.  Papy, you’re the one who he’s been listening to for navigation, not anyone else.  I couldn’t help navigate him correctly at all even if I tried.  Undyne freaks him out a little, he hid behind _you_ when Alphys came by to get me, and Chara thinks it’s all a funny joke.”  Blue ranted all of this very easily, shocking Stretch with how much the tiny sentry actually noticed.  Well, he knew that Blue saw everything and wasn’t as innocent as he seemed but like… Stretch wasn’t expecting this much.

                “Wait… highway?”  Stretch’s mind stuttered to a halt when he realized Blue had mentioned something that only showed up in the Surface world.

                “Oh, wait, you don’t remember the past lives too?”  Blue seemed surprised, tapping his cheekbone.  “But I could’ve sworn I heard you talking about that one time where Chara was being controlled by someone named Frisk.”

                “Wait, wait, wait.  Just hold up a sec bro.  you’re telling me that you remember even the time you died?  But I thought you didn’t remember any of the Resets.”  Blue grinned innocently.

                “That’s what you get for thinking.”  Blue went serious quickly.  “But you had better figure out a way to keep Red away from his so-called ‘Boss’ or else you won’t get to go to Muffet’s ever again.”  Blue hopped off the bed, heading towards his own room again.  Pausing at the door, Blue looked menacingly back at Stretch.  “No honey either.  Forever.”  With that, Blue left quickly.

                Stretch blinked a few times.  “Well.”  Rubbing the back of his skull, he glanced over at the container that still held Red’s soul.  “Shit.”  What was he going to do now?


	5. December 26th

                _Maybe… Boss had completely forgotten about him?_   Red didn’t think Boss would remember Red if he weren’t _in front_ of him.  How did the saying go?  Out of sight, out of mind?  It was a human saying, one that Frisk had told him before.  Boss had forgotten about the human one Reset and Frisk had muttered that when Red told them to go on ahead since Boss was probably reporting something to the king or to Undyne or whatever.  Wait, had Frisk told him?  Or was it some other human?  He still had issues with his memories.

                If Boss forgot about him, what would he do when he got back to his world?  No, not ‘if’, ‘when’.  He had decided to leave, as soon as he figured out exactly _how_ he was going to do that.  Would Boss remember him entirely if he was in front of him?  But, based on the way things were going when he left, would his world still Reset over and over while he was here?  If so, was everyone getting worse and worse as he stayed here in this sugar-coated and sunshine-y universe?

                Speaking of this universe, it seemed everything here was _swapped_ from his own.  Commander Undyne was the royal scientist while Dr. Alphys was the Captain of the Royal Guard.  The Royal Guard was full of harmless little bunnies while Lieutenants Dogamy and Dogaressa and their team were normal citizens of Snowdin – the Lieutenants themselves being the Innkeepers.  Speaking of Snowdin, turns out that it only snows here in the summer and autumn – the winter very rarely saw snow and spring was bare and dry (which was just plain weird to him, Snowdin was always caked in frozen dust, packed snow, and slippery ice).  As had been discussed with Stretch before, the lunatic from Hotland was switched with Chillbz, who was considered the ‘weirdo always trying to sell burnt food in hotland’ and instead named Grillby here.  The terrifying King Asgore was instead this wimpy flower lover in the Ruins, and… _she_ was called Queen Toriel here, even though she was a huge pushover anyhow.  He saw more similarities between Blue and Boss than he did between Stretch and Boss while Red himself got along great with Stretch when he wasn’t seeing the visible similarities or making comparisons or really just doing anything that he normally does near Stretch.

                But at the same time, _nothing_ was the same even swapped around.  Nobody wanted to kill anyone, not even Captain Alphys or Queen Toriel.  The kid, Chara, had gone up to the Capital then had come back not too long ago, with Queen Toriel coming along to see where Chara was living.  _‘These are my friends – Papy, Blue, and Red.’_   Chara had even introduced Red as a _friend_ , though Red wasn’t sure if that was even a thing that he was even capable of doing or having.  If Blue was truly like Boss then Blue had more difficulties hiding how smart he really was, and Stretch had more difficulties just sitting and chilling.  That’s what Red did whenever he wasn’t being called upon.  Stretch always needed to have something to do to pass the time, whether it was watching that weird replacement DJ bot on the telly, braiding string together for seemingly absolutely no reason, or even cleaning the house.  If he didn’t just lazily do a little work at his actual jobs.

                Red could sit for hours and just chill and do nothing but stare into space – it had become his favorite thing to do since it wasn’t as taxing on his mental health as actually doing anything.  He had a feeling that was his favorite thing to do anyhow, before all of _that_ started happening.  Sure, he did his part around town and avoided getting dusted by any other monster, but when no one was around he would become a blank state – something like that?

                “Oh, Red, you’re up?”  Stretch walked through the front door, flicking a wasted cig back into the dirt spot next to the door.  Red noticed the cautious look to Stretch’s eyes as he continued to just blankly stare at Stretch.  “Red?”  Oh yeah, that was a question.  Sometimes, he really did forget that the rules of his world didn’t apply here.  Well, really, most of the time, not just some of the time, but still.

                “yeah.  i’m up.”  Red ignored the… relief? as Stretch relaxed a little, walking over to the plant that was set to the side (if Red remembered correctly, that was the spot that Dummy the Rock sat when Boss and he were younger – Boss didn’t want to think of some name for a rock as Red insisted he should since it was a Pet Rock so, instead, defaulted to calling Red a ‘dummy’.  So Red cleverly turned it around and named the rock Dummy.  It was hilarious when he caught little Boss feeding the rock sprinkles afterwards.) and watering it.  It startled Red a little when the liquid coming out of the watering can was a red tint.  “wait wait wait, what are you giving the plant?”  It looked almost like the poisonous water in Waterfall.  Some people said that Undyne killed a Drakon and the Drakon’s blood spilled into that pond, others said that it was because of the deformed octopus that lived there.  No one really knew what it was besides that it was poisonous.

                Stretch raised one of his browbones back at him.  “What?  Haven’t you ever seen someone water a plant with kool-aid?”  What?

                “kuol… laid?”  Red had never heard of that before.  Maybe it was a human word?  He knew that Frisk and, apparently, Chara spoke the same language as all the Underground but when he had been on the Surface there had been many humans who spoke some other language.  Sometimes it sounded different per human but Red was almost certain that it all had to be the same language – there was no way anyone would be able to learn more than two languages after all.  Red himself had difficulties remembering the ancient language they used to use.

                A loud bang startled Red from his thoughts, jumping slightly.  Looking back up, the only difference of the room was Stretch staring at him in utter disbelief with the watering can set to the side, Stretch’s phalanges still wrapped around the handle.  “Have you never had Kool-Aid?”  Tilting his head to the side, Red gave Stretch a confused look.

                “what _is_ col laid?”

                “You haven’t even _heard_ of Kool-Aid?!”  Chara’s voice came from behind Red, making Red turn towards the side so neither of them was behind him.  Even if this was supposedly a ‘safe’ world, it didn’t make him feel all warm and fuzzy to know someone was behind him.  Chara looked absolutely stricken, shocked from the top of their head to the bottom of their feet.  Almost like that blond guy from that weird floral-obsessed anime Frisk tried showing everyone before – everyone only cared about the show when the brunette animated human rejected the so-called ‘senpai’ because it was hilarious watching him go from flowers and ‘handsome’ to squiggly lines and ‘ignore him’ in such a short moment.  Chara kinda looked like the blond guy during that moment before the squiggly lines, right after the flowers.  Except more horrified by the idea that Red has never heard of the weird red liquid.  “Quick, make a new pitcher ASAP!” Sending Stretch rushing to the kitchen, Chara instead placed their focus on Red.  Sitting Red back down on the couch, Chara crawled up into Red’s lap.

                Red knew that Chara was a kid but still… MK was a kid and guess where that had gone.  The only thing that kept him from going blank and reverting back to what he was once before was the fact that Chara hugged him to their chest and started crooning comforting words while they pet the back of his skull.  Not even Toriel had done such a thing before.  “It’s gonna be okay my friend, you will have the knowledge of heaven in a few short moments, I promise.  Do you know what hot chocolate is?”

                “wait, _you_ shouldn’t know what hot chocolate is.  you’re just a kid.”  Red was slightly disturbed by the idea that Chara might have had such a terrifying desert.  Red had it once and apparently was sick for two weeks after, where he saw hallucinations and believed that an ant was his fiancé and they were destined for each other – the ant was a hallucination as well.  Red didn’t remember any of it but, judging by the look on Boss’ skull, it was all real.

                “Uh…”  Pausing all actions they were doing, Chara pulled back warily.  “What _is_ hot chocolate?  To you, that is.”

                “a cake.”  A mischievous look came to Chara’s face but before they spoke, Red continued.  “it’s made with barbecue sauce, ketchup, hot sauce, seven different types of bell peppers, one brick from a hershey’s chocolate bar that came down here, er there, an alcoholic liquid in a bottle labeled vodka from the human world, the skin of a fish that was caught in the swamp of poison in waterfall, a carolina reaper’s seeds, and, i think, a tiny bit of extra sugar.  yeah, most definitely not for a kid.  sugar is bad for kids.  Illegal, yeah?”  Blinking a few times, Chara’s face twisted a bit in disgust and confusion.

                “I wouldn’t be able to live there.  My sugar being taken from me.”  There was a crash of glass in the kitchen before a clearly said ‘whoops’.

                “I have to agree with Chara here.  I’ve been drinking honey since i was a kid, there’s no way i’d be able to live there.  _Especially_ if that’s your idea of a _cake_.  that sounds terrible.”  Stretch reappeared from the kitchen with a slightly cracked cup holding a different colored liquid, this one purple.  Setting it on the coffee table, Stretch plopped back down onto the other side of the couch.

                “you have no idea, it was the grossest thing i’ve ever had.”  Snickering at the memory from right before he ate it.  “boss was so mad, he thought i was going to be in a coma after i ate that.  can’t say i blame him though, i was out cold for nearly two weeks.”  Wait.  “um… i think… right?  uh…”  That can’t be right, Boss wouldn’t get mad at the idea of him being in a coma right?  In fact, that would probably bring more customers if he were because a lot of monsters were necrophiles since they couldn’t do much with a dead monster to begin with as they all turn to dust when their soul goes out.  Muffet, he knew, would probably enjoy more than if he were alive or awake – she liked to dress up dolls and have tea parties, having a dead-like monster would probably be the best thing in the world for her.  “well, anyhow, don’t ever eat a hot chocolate cake, kid, you’ll be stuck in hallucinations that you don’t remember afterwards.  especially don’t eat one until you’re of age.”

                “I promise I won’t eat one ever, not even after I turn 21.”  Chara, amused, held up three fingers, touching the pinky and thumb together, to make this promise – maybe it was a human thing.

                “what?  is that the age here?”  Red turned to look at Stretch, who nodded like it was normal, sipping from his own cup of purple liquid.  “huh, i meant until you turned 14 but okay.”

                Coughing on the drink, Stretch sat up.  “The age you can drink alcohol is what?”

                “the same age, why?”  Confused, Red frowned at Stretch.  “the age of 14 is the age of consent.  the only person who can tell you no to any choice you make is someone who is stronger than you.  that’s why boss is the strongest, so no one is allowed to tell him no and get away with it.”

                “Is that why you allowed him to do what he’s done to you?”  Stretch stared hard back at Red’s confused gaze.  “is that why you let him sell you out and allowed him to walk all over you?  Answer me truthfully, is this reason the only reason you have so many scars and chips?”

                “Uh, well, I’m gonna go outside.”  Only stating this, Chara took away the only shield Red had from the suddenly serious Stretch by sprinting out the door.  He could already feel perspiration beginning to make itself known as he nervously glanced around the room.  Even if Stretch had shown more similarities with Red, it was hard not to see the physical similarities between Stretch and Boss.

                “Red.”  Calling his attention back, Stretch softened his piercing stare.  “I’m sorry for suddenly asking you this but I want to know – I _need_ to know.”

                “um, well…”  Red nervously scratched at his left metacarpals, picking at the brittle bone as a force of habit.  He hadn’t felt any pressuring situations such as this one since coming here where he had to hide the fact that he was scratching at his bones but, at the same time, maybe he hadn’t noticed it before.  He had a habit of not noticing what he was doing to his own body due to becoming numb to what others were doing to it.  “not… exactly?”  As far as Red could tell, there was no right answer to these questions.  Stretch often asked questions like that – there was either no right answer or no wrong answer and it was extremely frustrating and stressful for the anxiety-ridden skeleton.  So a true answer?  Or at least, a half-true answer.

                “not exactly?”  Stretch pressured for more, his stare piercing when on the receiving end of it.

                It was always this way with the short skeleton, he would finally open up and start relaxing then, suddenly, he’d close up and start pouring sweat while shaking and scratching at his – wait, scratching?  Stretch reached over and grabbed Red’s hands, holding one in each of his own and examining the left metacarpals.  They were much more scratched up than the rest of Red’s body, each bearing their own collection of chips and missing pieces, and it concerned Stretch greatly.  “u-um…”  Stretch blinked a few times, dropping Red’s hands quickly.  This was the first time Stretch had touched Red when Red wasn’t unconscious or in need of healing.  Yet, Chara and Blue could touch Red so easily?  That was a little… messed up, really.

                “Well?”  Stretch prompted, remembering that he had asked a question.

                “um… i-it’s just a ne-nervous habit that formed a lot of resets ago, not anything to do with you or nothin’ like that…”  His hands going back together in his lap, Stretch ignored the anxious twitching of Red’s phalanges.

                “That wasn’t the question i asked, Red.”  Stretch was patient.  He could out-wait Buddha at any time – he had to be patient when he worked with MK so it was just easier to continue being patient.

                “because i like it, ok?”  Suddenly snapping this, Red started glaring at the couch cushion.  He knew it was a lie, but Stretch let it go.  For now.  If Red was _anything at all_ like Blue, the truth would come out eventually.  “what’s it to you, anyways?”  Stretch observed the angry glow of red for a moment longer than it seemed necessary.  He kind of preferred an angry Red to the anxious, jumpy Red.  Did this mean that Red really was on that ‘highway of recovery’ as Blue said?  This was the first time that Red had gotten angry near him – or knowing that Stretch was nearby.  He often got silently angry whenever Blue was jumping around, spouting nonsense.

                Realizing how long he really was staring into Red’s eye-lights, Stretch glanced away and cleared his non-existent throat.  “Research, I suppose.  In some ways, at least.  Maybe?”  Stretch pondered that question for a moment, Red’s irritated voice ringing clearly through his skull as he thought about it.  “I don’t really know, honestly.”  Stretch met Red’s eye-lights again, noticing how Red’s expression had twisted with confusion and anger while he was speaking.

                Scoffing, Red replied.  “then there’s no reason for you to question me.”  Well, isn’t that mostly true.  Still, Stretch _really_ wanted to continue this conversation – if only to keep Red angry or, at the very least, irritated.

                “Y’know, I kinda prefer you this way.” _Whoops_ , that wasn’t supposed to be said out loud.  “A-anyways!  Did you like your Christmas present?”

                Red looked confused by the sudden change of topic.  “uh… the blanket you gave me yesterday?”

                “Yeah!  Isn’t it soft and fluffy?”  Without waiting for an answer to his questions, Stretch continued to feel awkward – and so, he continued to talk.  “and blue’s gift?  Wasn’t his a fox stuffed animal?”

                “that’s what that was?”

                “Didn’t Chara give you something as well?  A book or something?”

                “yeah, a book titled ‘how to stop stuttering: for dummies’.”  Red blankly looked at Stretch before hazarding a question.  “why did you all hand me random things yesterday while shouting?”

                “because it was Christmas?”  Stretch blinked a few times before feeling terrified.  “Wait, do you not celebrate Christmas?  What are the other winter holidays again?  Kwanza and Chanukah?  Isn’t there another one or something?”

                “krissmas?  qu-anza?  hannakah?  what?”  And so, the poor child was educated upon the different human created holidays – and a few monster-kind holidays as well.  By the end of it, Stretch had lost all hope in Red’s universe while knowing a new book inside and out, and Red was fairly impressed with this universe.  “huh, the only thing i know that we did was stay indoors from midnight to midnight on the 25th of december.”

                “Anyhow, you should drink the Kool-Aid before a certain human child takes it from you, kid.”  Saying this, Stretch swallowed his own cup of purple sugar and tears.  Lowering the cup when he did allowed him the priceless view of an interesting expression that went across Red’s skull at the taste of a mouthful of the Kool-Aid.

                “you guys and your ridiculously sweet shit – gross!”  Scrunching every possible place on his skull that there was _to_ scrunch, Red put the cup back on the table.

               


End file.
